Jiraiya's Apprentice
by nostalgicpenguin
Summary: When Naruto becomes a genin, it is normal for the dead-last to be placed with the top student, Sasuke Uchiha. But it is decided by one of the Sannin to have the brooding Uchiha on another team. How will being on a team without Sasuke change Naruto? Oh, and Jiraiya starts teaching him straight after he steals the scroll of sealing.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"Ok, you can open your eyes"

As his eyes opened, Naruto found himself looking at his teacher from the academy, smiling. He took in the picture of Iruka, alive and smiling, and found that the man was holding his goggles in his hands. His forehead also felt different, as if they were not empty, but had a weight to it.

Moving his hand to touch whatever was on his head, he felt a cold plate of metal, attached to a cloth wrapped around his head, with an engraving on it.

Naruto's eyes started to water at his realization.

"Congratulations on graduating" Said the chunin, still smiling away.

Naruto said nothing for several moments, and after enough time Iruka started to worry. Suddenly the blond dove in for an embrace, due to the fact that he could not muster up any words to fit the situation.

Iruka chuckled, and fell back. He was surprised by it, but that soon washed away with extreme joy as he found himself holding the boy on the ground.

There surroundings were actually quite nice. In the Forrest they found themselves in, it was a peaceful kind of quiet with the odd chirping of a cricket now and then. The moon light filled the night sky beautifully, touching everything with its white glow. It's light pierced through the tree-tops and lit up the spot Naruto and Iruka found themselves in. It was a magical evening, despite the rather sour events that transpired moments before.

Neither thought about how Naruto had failed the genin exam in the morning, thanks to his inability to do a regular Bunshin, nor did they think about how Mizuki tricked him into stealing the scroll of sealing, or about the fact they both nearly died a moment ago.

That was forgotten for the brief moment in time, and for the first time in a long time, Naruto was truly happy.

xXx

Konoha Ninja Academy

Kakashi Hatake strolled into the building which housed the 'Mission Assignment Desk', one where many genin get their first D-rank missions, reading a book and as relaxed as ever. He was a couple hours late which didn't seem to bother him, and in fact being this early was something he could take pride in if his track record of arriving late was anything to go by. On average he was four hours late, and that was to anything he had to do (except for missions).

The Jounin was somewhat a curious character - he always wore a face mask, which covered his nose and mouth, making half of his face a mystery. On top of that, he had his ninja headband covering his left eye. So really, if you were to look at the man's face, only his right eye would be visible. His hair was also somewhat interesting, as it was pure white (Not through age) and standing up on end, defying gravity. He wore standard Jounin clothing though, consisting of a standard flak jacket with the Uzumaki crest on the back and a simple black outfit underneath, with sandals and a kunai/shuriken holder on his right leg.

Walking through the hallway, the Jounin looked through a door that was slightly open, allowing the evening sunlight to leak out of it. That room housed the mission assignment desk and he could remember it even when he was a genin. He quickly brushed these thoughts to the back of his mind, as they started to bring up troubling memories which were best left buried for now. Walking past the nostalgic sight, he continued to the end of the hall.

Kakashi made great care not hurry along, making sure he got to enjoy his reading until he would have to stop and pay attention. The meeting he was about to attend was where he would be assigned a genin squad, something that had been done for many years now. Most Jounins, after doing a number of missions, were selected to be a leader for a young genin squad, and as such guide them to becoming great shinobi. Kakashi had done his fair share of missions as an ANBU leader and many as a Jounin, so it was only normal for him to slow it down and bestow his knowledge and experience onto the younger generation. He had been getting squads assigned to him for many years now, and yet he was attending another meeting for the new genins to be placed in a team.

So why did he not have one now?

The truth was, after the team was assigned to him he would give them one extra test, to see if they are really ninja material. He deemed this test to be the one single most important test to see if a team was ready to serve the village as active shinobi, and shown the man if they had the right attributes for the job. And, funnily enough, even though he had been doing it for many years, he had not passed a single squad yet.

Keeping this in mind, Kakashi could only sigh. Another year where he would gain a genin team, fail them and go back to doing missions again regularly.

Stopping at the end of the hallway, the Jounin could hear voices behind the door he found in front of him, and opened it.

The room suddenly went quite as the door opened, and all eyes fixed on it. Stepping in lazily, Kakashi walked in still reading his book, seemingly unaware of the sudden silence which enveloped the room, and also unaware of the fact that everyone was staring at him. He probably would have commented on the silence of the room, if not for the kunai hurtling toward him. He swiftly stepped out of the way, avoiding the kunai and looking awesome all in one movement, still not looking up from his book. The man knew exactly who threw the kunai, and why, as this wasn't the first time this had happened.

Finally deciding on putting his book away, Kakashi looked at his attacker in front of him before speaking.

"Sorry, I was on the way here when my intended path was blocked by a black cat, so I had to-" Kakashi tried to say before he was cut off.

"Damn it Kakashi! Don't try any of your lame excuses, do you know how long we have been waiting for you?!" A rather irritated Kunoichi screamed at the man standing before her, reaching into her overcoat for some extra weaponry.

The aloof man merely chuckled, and made a dismissing hand action to the Kunoichi, who was ready to unleash some shuriken into his body, followed by a single "Sorry Anko".

Anko had light-brown eyes which would scare any man in their right mind if she looked at them directly. She had short blue-tinted black hair tied into a fanned-ponytail, and a forehead protector. She wore a tan overcoat with purple seams and pockets on each side, which lay over a fitted mesh body suit, stretching from her neck down to her thighs. In addition to this, she had a dark orange mini-skirt with a blue belt keeping it in place, metal-plated shin guards and a small pendent residing around her neck in the form of a necklace, looking like a snake fang.

She was a Jounin in the village, and therefore quite a talented ninja, but this was not the reason a lot of men feared her, or at least it was not the main reason. Anko was notorious for being one damn scary women. She could and would make anyone's life a living hell, not afraid of mortally wounding you if you tried to be smart or cocky toward her. Those that knew her well felt safe enough to try a couple jokes now and then, but never anything too extreme; most Jounin made sure to go careful around her.

Even so, this didn't mean anything to Kakashi, as the two seemed to be on friendly terms.

Friendly terms which involved hurling weapons with the potential to kill at each other if one turns up late to a meeting it would seem.

"Whatever, you are here now, so let's get this meeting started already" Said Anko, turning away from Kakashi and toward the desk at the front of the room with a large frown.

Everyone in the room also turned there attention to the desk as Kakashi made his way toward a couple of people other than Anko in the room of whom he knew. The people in question were Asuma Sarutobi, Kurenai Yuhi and Maito Gai.

Asuma was a tall, bearded man with short spiky hair and brown eyes. He wore standard Konoha ninja uniform, with a flak jacket on top with his sleeves rolled half way up, along with sandals and a white sash with the kanji for 'fire' on it attached to his waist with bandages wrapped around the arms of his sleeves.

The sash he had was given to him as one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, a group of elite ninja hired for the protection of the Fire Daimyō.

He was also the son of the Hokage, making him not your standard Jounin to say the least.

Next to him was Kurenai, a slender, light skinned women with black, shoulder-length hair which looked wild accompanied by her bright red eyes. She wore mesh armor over her blouse and right arm, with a broad material over it with the patterns of rose thorns. Her hands and upper thighs were wrapped up in bandages, and she had a standard Konoha forehead protector.

The best genjutsu user in the Konohona, and someone nobody wanted to fight, although she wasn't scary like Anko. People just didn't like the idea of being stuck in one of her hellish genjutsus.

The third person, completing the trio was Maito Gai.

Gai was an interesting man to say the least, and many would laugh at him. He had the worst bowl-haircut in the history of the world, accompanied by his very, very bushy eye brows. As well as this, he wore a full spandex suit, green in color with orange leg warmers. Over his suit he wore a flak jacket, and his Konohona head band around his waist as a belt.

An eccentric man, one most people underestimate in battle because of it. This is not a smart thing to do, he was a Jounin after all.

Gai was a Taijutsu master, better than anyone in the Konoha and probably the world, though he doesn't have very many techniques so to speak. He tries to stick to Taijutsu, and has made it all the way to Jounin level with his skills.

Kakashi certainly had interesting relations here, and probably the strongest group of Jounins in the village.

After joining the group, the meeting started with the Hokage leading from the desk at the front of the room. This went on for quite some time, discussing various children from the academy and who would be best suited to be there sensei, standard stuff. Up until now Kakashi didn't know anything about the new genin (With one exception), and he wasn't impressed so far. Sure he thought there were many with talent to become ninja, but nothing amazing, all pretty much your run of the mill ninja.

He thought this until the name 'Uchiha' came up in the conversation, something he had been anticipating for quite some time.

The last Uchiha, all family killed in a single night by his brother, and a genius according to the academy teachers - someone like this definitely appealed to the man.

The Hokage cleared his throat. "Now, Uchiha Sasuke is the top rookie of his year, a prodigy, destined to become a great ninja. Now, where do we put him?" The old man said, smiling to himself.

"I must insist the boy go on to my team, Hokage-sama" Said Kakashi, raising his hand and stepping out from behind his friends. Not many thought that this was strange, it was only normal for Sasuke Uchiha to go to the only other ninja in the world (Excluding Itachi) with the sharingan to be his tutor. They were just as confident as Kakashi that the boy would go to him on a team.

"I can understand this, Kakashi, but unfortunately, I have already placed him on a different team" The Hokage replied, looking at the covered up face of confusion on the Jounin. "Regarding this, I would like you all to meet my student and long time friend, Jiraiya".

Out of the shadows behind the Hokage stepped a white-haired man, bangs framing each side of his face with a forehead protector on his head, which had the kanji for 'Oil' on it. He had red lines coming from his eyes down to his jaw, and a wart on the left side of his nose. His clothing wasn't that of an ordinary ninja, but a sage. He wore a green kimono top with matching pants, mesh armor and a red haori.

He was probably the strongest man in the room, rivaling that of the Hokage, and everybody had heard about him.

"Hatake Kakashi, I can understand why you would want the Uchiha to be on your team, but you have already had a team of genin put together for you, for reasons I will explain to you" Said the toad sage as he stood next to the Hokage. Despite how he usually acted, Jiraiya acted seriously during meetings like this one, and approached things in a matter-of-fact kind of way.

"Jiraiya came back to the village a couple days ago to help me with deciding the teams to put genin on, although some of these can change we have decided that the team Sasuke has been put on is not up for debate" The Hokage added, clearing up whispers going around the room on why one of the Sannin just appeared in the room.

Kakashi stared at the men in front of him, confused and somewhat annoyed. "But who else can teach the kid how to utilize his sharingan when he awakens it?".

"When the time comes, we will arrange for him to have regular lessons with you to learn how to use his eyes, but you will not be in charge of his team" Hiruzen said (The Hokage).

"Anyway, let me be the one to announce who will be team seven, being led under Kakashi Hatake. Sakura Haruno, Shino Aburame and Naruto Uzumaki" Jiraiya said, frowning at the looks some of the ninja gave him after mentioning Naruto's name. Many were led to believe he would not become a ninja due to him failing the exam, and some whispered about how letting the boy become a ninja would only cause the kyuubi to attack again in due time. Jiraiya clenched his fists.

"Team eight, under Kurenai Yuhi, will consist of Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Sasuke Uchiha" Jiraiya said with a trace of anger in his voice, trying to divert the attention of the group away from Naruto.

The room was filled with whispers now, doubting this decision and even going to far as to consider speaking out against the Hokage and Jiraiya. This was soon stopped though as Jiraiya continued his speach.

"Usually, the top student and dead-last are put on the same team, to balance each other out. But, I decided against this and implored the Hokage to change it. Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha seem to have been at each other's throats all the way through the academy. If we put them on the same team, training would be successful, as each would keep training harder and harder to out-do the other. But when it comes to missions, this could lead to failing the mission, getting themselves killed or even their comrades by trying to show who is the better ninja" Jiraiya paused, making eye contact with the many faces in front of him. "We moved him off the team as to ensure that they don't do anything stupid" Jiraiya finished by sitting down in a chair right next to the Hokage's, indicating that he had had enough of talking.

Hiruzen smiled profusely at the many ninja who had agreed with the reasoning, and had refrained from whispering. "Thank you, Jiraiya, now, back to the other teams. Team ten will.."

The meeting went on without any more mention of the turn of events regarding Sasuke, and many seemed content with the result, much to Hiruzen's and Jiraiya's pleasure. Though one ninja was a bit miffed with the reasons, but decided to wait until after the meeting to discuss it further.

XxX

After the Meeting

The meeting didn't last too long after that, ending with the Hokage informing the new teachers to be at the academy in one week to meet their genin team.

Then everyone headed out, talking about everything that had happened to one another, until only four remained in the room; The Hokage, Jiraiya, Kakashi and Kurenai.

Hiruzen was not surprised by this, in fact he was almost counting on it happening. Though there would not be a lot of things to discuss, as his decision was final.

Kakashi looked at the two men, trying to think of how to start his case. Was he going to start with Sasuke, or would he first talk about how Kiba belonged to Kurenai's squad, a true sensor unit. But unfortunately he was beaten to it by Jiraiya, who didn't want to drag out this talk too long, he did have his research to take care of after all.

"Listen, Kakashi, I know what you are going to say, and yes Sasuke probably would become a top shinobi under you. But, I have decided that Naruto would be better to learn from you than Sasuke, so the latter was moved" Jiraiya said calmly.

The Jounin took this in, trying to process it. "Why do you think Naruto would be better, might I ask?".

This time the Hokage answered instead with an even tone. "You are one of our best ninja in this village, and were taught by the fourth himself. I'm sure that that must count for something, wouldn't you agree?". The fact that Kakashi was taught by the father of Naruto, Minato Namikaze, was shocking to hear as the Jounin hadn't really thought about it, although he did know about Naruto's heritage.

Kakashi didn't say anything, but turned around instead and walked towards the door.

"Thank you Hokage-sama, Jiraiya-sama, I will be looking foreword to testing my team" Stated Kakashi, before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

His leaving was rather abrupt, but not entirely a mystery to Jiraiya.

Talk of the fourth around Kakashi brought up unwanted memories for him, hence his sudden leaving from the building. Kurenai stayed quiet through the whole of this, following the conversation to the letter, making sure she understood everything before nodding at the Hokage and Jiraiya, and started walking out of the door before disappearing into a small, concise whirlwind of flower petals.

She wanted to question the two men before her, ask them why the perfect sensor team had been split up, but after seeing the resolve behind what they had said to Kakashi, she knew it would be to no avail. They were dead set on these teams, and nothing would stop them. Who knows? Maybe this would work out for the better, it was true that while having rivals was something good in itself, having rivals on the same team as you could make your decision making somewhat bad, and this could be dire.

Once the female had left the room, Jiraiya let out a breath of air, thankful for the meeting to be over. It all had gone well, and although Kakashi clearly was unsure about the boy, the toad sage could tell that the boy would prove to be an interesting student. Following this thought, Jiraiya realized that he had a whole week until Naruto would be placed on team Kakashi... A whole week to get the boy ready. Nothing fancy, but get the basics down - both he and the Hokage knew that he had been neglected in the academy, and he was far from being a proper ninja thus far, so it was almost common sense for Jiraiya to set him on the right path.

"Hey, tell Naruto to come to the hot springs tomorrow at ten, I think it's time I meet the boy" Jiraiya said with a smile on his face. His mind was coming up with many ideas on what he could teach the child, and he was literally jumping at the thought of doing it. He was the boy's Godfather after all, and he wanted his Godson to be as strong as he was. But as amazing as Naruto could be, Jiraiya quickly dismissed the thought of the boy being stronger than him, as he was the great and valiant Toad Sage, he would be lying if he thought he could make anyone as awesome as him.

The Hokage nodded, feeling rather tired after a whole day's work and this meeting. Damn it he was getting too old for this Hokage stuff, why could Jiraiya just take his job? He wished for this once, but the toad sage had made it clear that he would never be Hokage.

"Right then, with all this sorted, time hit the clubs!" Jiraiya exclaimed, walking out the door, holding himself in a high and mighty manner.

Hiruzen merely laughed quietly at this, as everyone knew how Jiraiya was in day to day life - a pervert. If being the author of Icha Icha series didn't make you a pervert, nothing did.

The Hokage had nothing but respect for his favourite student as he watched him walk out the door. He had become a fine shinobi, learning many techniques and even surpassing him in some areas. Even when his team mate Orochimaru turned sour and left the village, Jiraiya remained strong and followed him, while also making sure that his village was safe. The amount of sneaking around villages that toad sage had done was amazing, a true genius of under cover infiltration. His network of spies Jiraiya had at his disposal ran to all corners of the earth, residing in every hidden village.

Reclining to his chair, The Hokage thought about many things, including the new genin teams, Kakashi Hatake and Naruto. The latter thought made Hiruzen call a couple ANBU over to him who were always hidden somewhere for his protection. He told them when Naruto needed to see him, and decided it was time to make his way home.

'How interesting that the boy was able to pick up the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu in just a couple hours, certainly one to watch' The old man thought before walking out of the room, heading for his house to further think about the outcome of this decision.

xXx

Naruto's Apartment

Naruto awoke in his room a little after nine, smiling like there was no tomorrow. He was remembering the events of last night, and what happened after he became a ninja. Iruka took him to Ichiraku Ramen, the best ramen store in the world (according to Naruto) and talked about the many things the boy would have to do once he was put on a team. Iruka said several times that Naruto could always stop by to ask him questions or to catch up whenever, he encouraged it in fact. This meant so much to Naruto, as one of the first people to trust in him wanted to keep in touch even after he had stopped being their student.

After eating however, the two were accompanied by an ANBU personnel to the Hokage. As they arrived, Naruto started dreading the visit, worrying about how he was going to get in trouble for stealing that stupid scroll and all. But Hiruzen, having watched the whole event through his crystal ball only wanted to congratulate the boy in succeeding and gave him a similar talk to Iruka's, but less personal.

He was a ninja, a ninja of the village hidden in the leaves, and he was going to kick some ass. He would become Hokage in no time now! He just needed to polish his new technique and learn some others quickly, and maybe work on his chakra control, and some of his taijutsu was sloppy, and yeah if he had to admit it he couldn't even touch genjutsu... So he was a long way off Hokage, but he would get there soon, he just needed training.

Lots of training.

And ramen, the elixir of life which Naruto simply could not live without.

He had a week until he was put onto a team, and Naruto figured that his new sensei would teach him everything he needed to know, so he could take it easy for this week. He would still be training as hard as ever, just not his usual 'train until you pass out, get up and do the training again until you pass out, repeat' method he had grown accustom to - this method ended up hurting the boy a lot and took a lot of effort to get up out of bed each morning after performing the training.

Getting washed and dressed, Naruto made his way to his kitchen, chuckling as he thought of how he could use his new technique to his advantage. Oh, how many pranks he could pull with over one hundred of him, and have ramen waiting for him at home as he made his escape from the scene. Actually, why even be at the site of the prank. Sit on the sidelines and watch his clones perform the task while he sat back with ramen - There was a whole world of possibilities!

Strangely enough though, Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by a banging on the door, which made the boy fall off his chair. He never had visitors, ever. The only time people have come to his house is when the landlord wanted to complain about something the boy had done, or when people came to complain to him about the pranks he pulled that day. But, he hadn't done anything like that in a while, training constantly for the exam he failed for two weeks.

Keeping this in mind, Naruto walked over to the door carefully, not going too fast just in case there was a trap there or something. His door wasn't exactly the strongest around, and it has even broken a couple times due to slamming it a bit too hard. If someone wanted to brake in, they could, but this didn't bother the boy in the slightest. People generally wanted to stay away from him, so that kind of worked out for the best.

Grasping the handle, Naruto flung the door open, revealing a tall shinobi wearing a mask standing there.

The blond genin sighed, and then said "Good Morning , what do you want?" Naruto asked in an exasperated tone.

Everything that involved an ANBU at his house meant he had to leave immediately and without question, as failing to do so would only end up getting his ass handed to him by said ANBU. 'Damn it' Naruto thought. 'I was really looking foreword to having the morning to myself, relaxing with my ramen'.

The ANBU stared at the boy, recognizing the boy's sarcasm and exasperation at his being there. He just followed orders, it wasn't like he actually wanted to be dealing with the demon child. "The Hokage-sama has requested that you come see him immediately, boy" The ANBU said with a touch of venom in the last bit he said.

Naruto sighed, and turned around. He was not happy about this, but he would be willing to go if he got to take his ramen. "Hold on one second, let me go finish making-".

"Hold on tight" was the last thing Naruto heard before being picked up by the ANBU, who proceeded to disappear with the boy in a swirl of leaves. How dare he interrupt him in mid-sentence! It was incredibly annoying, and the boy (whilst being carried by the man to the Hokage's Tower) noted that the ANBU with the raccoon mask would be the man who would be facing one of his new 'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu' pranks.

After the two were gone, a figure appeared from the shadows. This man had a mask covering his face and hair that stood up on end. Peering into the door of the now empty apartment, the man sighed, thinking 'I guess I better see what my future student lives like, one's home is a reflection of one's self'.

Thinking this, Kakashi, after five minutes of looking around, decided that he did not want to believe that Naruto was a reflection of his home, and prayed to kami that is was not true. For the first time in a while, the Jounin was scared.

The man left the house, shutting the door behind him and looking toward the Hokage's Tower, where he swore he could see a dash of orange fly through the window, but without his sharingan active he couldn't see that far away.

That blur of orange that just crash landed through the window of the building was indeed Naruto, feeling quite annoyed at the rudeness of the ANBU and even more annoyed about the ramen.

'Did he have to throw me through the window? What was wrong with the door?' Thought the boy as he dusted himself off and looked around the office.

The office was a large, oval-shaped room with a desk facing away from the large window. Many pieces of paper in piles filled the desk, sides of the desk and in front of the desk - as was the usual in the Konoha. On the desk, their was the kanji for 'Shadow', next to a symbol of the Konohona.

Looking up at the person behind the desk, the boy recognized the smiling old man as the Hokage, a trusted friend to Naruto. Even though Hiruzen couldn't see Naruto as much as he would like, he still made an effort to see the boy often, making himself a Grandfather figure for the blond genin, which didn't go unnoticed by him. Everytime the Hokage saw Naruto, the boy would show his gratitude through a hug or something similar. But now he was twelve, the hugging had stopped.

He was a cool ninja now, no time for hugs!

Hiruzen could only speculate in his mind why Naruto was thrown though the window, but decided to ignore it. At least the window had been open.

"Naruto, my boy, how are you today? Feeling like a ninja yet?" The old man asked gleefully.

Laughing, Naruto replied. "Hello Ojiisan, I'm feeling pretty damn annoyed at not getting my morning ramen" the boy looked down with a frown, recalling the events leading up to his visit with the Hokage, and then continued. "But I can't wait until I get put on a team and start doing really cool ninja stuff, Believe it!".

The old man laughed, though not insultingly, at the boy's words, remembering Naruto had yet to learn the troubles of being a rookie - D-rank missions.

As far back as the boy could remember, the Hokage has always been there to help him. He understood how he couldn't just show up all the time, he was the Hokage, but even so now and again the old man would visit Naruto, and he was his most trusted friend for his whole life. While around, Naruto felt protected and loved, for someone going out of there way to spend time with you was something the boy valued more than anything.

"So Naruto, are you going to be training this week? Who knows what being a ninja will bring" Said Hiruzen almost slyly, although the boy didn't notice.

"Of course! I always train, Ojiisan, you know that"

"Hmmmmmm" The Hokage said. "Before a hard week of training I always used to go to the hot springs and relax for an hour or two, I highly recommend it".

Naruto stared, thinking about what the old man was getting at, as the boy wasn't very bright. Realizing he was being told to go to the hot springs, the quickly said "Thanks Ojiisan, I'll head over right now! See ya" before bolting out the door with his usual zeal.

The old man chuckled at the boy's antics, sat back in his chair and smoked his pipe profusely, blowing rings when exhaling. 'I hope Jiraiya goes easy on him. Was it wrong of me to send the boy unknowingly to intense training? Probably not'. Once coming to this conclusion, Hiruzen brushed this thought from his mind and got back to the ever-mounting paperwork he had to complete.

XxX

Hot Springs

"This is perfect" Came a voice from the bushes, followed by the sound of pen on paper.

Naruto had made his way to the hot spring as fast as he could, eager to get to training, despite his thought earlier on 'taking it easy'. Seeing the Hokage again planted the thought deep into his head that he is a long way off becoming a great ninja, let alone taking the old man's job. He barely got through the academy, and as dead last even if he did pass. Everyone else was already doing better than him at all the fundamental aspects of being a ninja, which are the most important things to ninja. If one wanted to be the best, they had to have knowledge on every aspect of ninja; this will avoid being taken down by run-of-the-mill ninja who could beat you if they knew anything about your weakness. Basically, Naruto knew that if he was faced against an enemy who is proficient in genjutsu, he would be toast.

This brought the boy's mood down, and made him all the more excited to start improving. He was even getting tips from the Hokage himself with his training! That must count for something, didn't it?

As he arrived in front of the hot springs, his attention was shifted from the door to a bush, were noises seem to be coming from. Curiosity getting the better of him, Naruto made his way over. Taking care not to give away his position, the boy moved very slowly and even crouched, trying to sneak up on the bush just incase it was something threatening.

Getting as close as he was going to get, Naruto stretched his arm out over the brush and waited, ready to see what was lurking in the greenery. 'Please don't be a monster, please don't be a monster, please don't be a monster' rushed through Naruto's head, playing over and over again, starting to fear the unknown. He started to think about all the horrible things it could be, and why the hell was he still there.

But what if it was an enemy ninja?

Then he would be spying on the Konoha, and maybe intends to harm it's citizens? And the information he could get from spying would be used against the Konoha, an act which could result in everyone getting hurt, ninja or not. This gave Naruto a firm resolve to confront the bastard in there and make him pay for infiltrating his village.

The boy's arm came down on the bush and pulled away the leaves making him unable to see what was there.

Once uncovered, Naruto palmed his forehead and fell backwards, very annoyed. He found an old man (although not as old as the Hokage) crouched down and scribbling stuff into a notepad whilst looking through a hole in the wall - a hole in the wall which enabled someone to look into the female side of the hot springs. So, this was simply a pervert in a bush trying to catch a sneak peak at the ladies? Naruto was mad at himself, and at the man.

The man in question had long white hair, and a huge scroll on his back, with a red haori. This is all the boy could see from his position, but he planned to make this pervert pay for making him feel fear.

"Oi! Old man, stop looking in on those women" Shouted Naruto excessively loud, trying to make it possible for the women to hear. But, to the boy's displeasure, no one had heard.

"Hey, kid, shut up! I'm trying to do some research here" Replied the man, not even bothering to turn from his position.

This only made Naruto even more annoyed. "If you don't come out here of there right now I will make you come out! I'm a ninja you know" said the boy bravely, already trying to show off the fact he was a ninja at last.

"A ninja, hmm?" Said the old man, turning around to look at the boy. Looking him up and down, a smirk spread across the old man's face, which turned into vast amounts of laughter, all at Naruto's expense. "If you are a ninja kid then I guess the graduation exam is getting too easy".

If Naruto was only annoyed before, he was truly mad now.

He hated people doubting him, in any form. Be it doubting his dream, doubting his ability as a ninja, it just made him really mad. This guy hadn't even heard about him before, and yet he was already putting him down as the dead last loser who could never be a ninja. This guy had to be brought down a peg, this guy needed to get his ass kicked out of him, then Naruto would get the respect he deserved (at least, this was how the boy saw it).

"That's it! I am a ninja, a damn good one! Let's fight, right now" Shouted rather than spoke Naruto, staring at the man intently.

Standing up straight now, the man stopped laughing and looked at the boy again, just checking to see if the boy was serious. Seeing that Naruto was indeed serious, he looked around a couple times, a picked up his notebook.

"Ok kid, you want a fight? You have one, but we can't do it here" Said the man, pocketing his notebook and walking over the Naruto. "No backing out of this fight now".

Naruto stared at the man coming closer, and became uneasy. 'This guy seems pretty confident, maybe he isn't just some old per-' Naruto almost finished thinking as he was grabbed by the man and Shunshin'ed them both away.

...

'God damn it every damn time! I need to learn how to do this' Thought the boy as he appeared on a training ground, still being held by his opponent. Taking note of his surroundings, this was a pretty standard training field. The open space around them covered about two hundred meters across, and one hundred and fifty meters long, giving whoever decided to train there plenty of room. Also, situated at the edge opposite to the ground's entrance (Where Naruto was currently situated) lay a lake, big enough for two people to fight comfortably. The whole area was surrounded by a thick Forrest, the usual in the Konoha and fire country.

The old man thrown the boy to the ground, smiling as he did so.

"What the hell?!" Naruto said, picking himself up from the ground.

The old man chuckled. "Listen boy, because I am only going to say this once!". Following this, he quickly went through a number of hand signals, bit his thumb to draw blood and slapped the floor.

Smoke enveloped the place the old man was standing, making it impossible for Naruto to see anything. Suddenly the smoke started to swirl around, forming a small whirlwind before shooting outwards. This revealed the the old man standing in a triumphant pose on top of a toad the size of a human.

"I am Gama's holy sennin, also known as the great and powerful toad sennin.." The old man proceeded to strike a number of poses before continuing. "I am the one and only, super-pervert Jiraiya!".

Naruto stared for a couple moments, partly in awe of the toad that was summoned before his very eyes and partly because of the old man's own name for himself - super-pervert. The boy scratched the back of his head, trying to figure out how someone like the pervert in front of him is supposed to be a powerful ninja, or even a 'sennin' of anything. The boy pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind and decided to see just how strong the man was by fighting him, hoping that he wasn't as strong as Jiraiya made out.

"Ok... Ero-sennin... I don't care if you are a toad sennin or not, I'll still kick your ass! So get ready to be beaten by the future Hokage!" Shouted the boy, molding some chakra.

Laughing and dispelling the toad, Jiraiya fell into a basic Taijutsu stance, thinking that he should at least seem like he isn't taking it easy on the boy, it was one thing fighting the kid, it was another to crush his pride by beating him to a pulp whilst not taking it seriously, crushing his pride.

This thought was interrupted however by a very loud 'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu' being screamed by one blond genin.

With the training ground being covered in a veil of smoke, Jiraiya chuckled to himself, realizing what was happening. One second later, eighty Naruto-clones charged at the old man, all shouting various battle cries and insults.

Naruto smiled as his army rushed in, and couldn't help but grin at how he thought the result of it would be. 'My jutsu is the best!' The boy thought as he rushed along with his clones. As the clones encircled the old man, he discarded his smile and put a more serious face on, which led to Jiraiya starting to dodge the many attacks that were coming at him from all angles.

Trying to get a good read of the boy's skills, the toad-sennin continued to dodge and block the attacks, and found himself frowning. It seemed implausible for a new genin to have such bad form of Taijutsu, for what he could see was just rough flurry of attacks with no technique or form behind them. Jiraiya came to the realization that this was probably because of the academy and their biased way of teaching the Jinchuriki (Not showing him how to fight properly) that his form was non-existent. This could only make the sennin mad, and caused him to start attacking back.

Upon blocking a hit from one Naruto, Jiraiya grabbed his arm and threw him in the air, knowing full well it was the original, directly above. He then spun around and started picking off the clones surrounding him, going very slowly for his standards as to give the boy a chance.

The original Naruto had been thrown upwards and slightly away from the sennin, and was annoyed greatly. He was not going down that easily, and it was this thought which made the boy conjure up a group of seven clones in mid air, who paired up with each other and the original, and thrown each one's pair at the old man.

The clone army had backed off slightly, scared of being defeated as easily as the others which gave Jiraiya a chance to stop and see the four orange genins come flying at him, all trying to hit him with either kicks or punches. Much to Naruto's chagrin however, the old man jumped to meet the first one in midair, giving it a kick in the stomach, and avoiding the rest of the incoming Naruto's. Jiraiya could only smirk at the boy's creative move he had just used to throw himself back into battle, and could see the potential housed within him.

Taking a second to wait for Naruto to gain his bearings, Jiraiya moved his head to the side until it clicked, and then started making 'come at me' gestures in the hopes of firing the boy up. Naruto couldn't stand anyone who looked down on him, especially during a fight, so the taunting of the old man made the boy mad. All the Naruto's seemed to dislike it, and all began to once again charged at Jiraiya, who was back in his stance.

Jiraiya crouched down for a second, and then disappeared from the boy's view in an instant. All Naruto-clones and original stopped and looked around for the man, bewildered and confused. Suddenly a foot came down on a clone's head with enough force to kill a genin, turning it into smoke instantly. All eyes fell upon the toad-sennin as he started sending kicks and punches into the clones which were starting to surround him. This continued until half the clones had been defeated, the rest trying to think of a way to attack the old man who can dispose of them easily.

Naruto flipped around suddenly as he felt a large amount of chakra build up behind him. Suddenly needles flew around the place, impaling many clones and dispelling them. The boy stared at the incoming attack, unable to move due to fear. The way the jutsu was being shot, it was designed to kill all in it's path. 'Am I fast enough to avoid it?' thought Naruto as the needle barrage moved closer to him. 'Move damn it! Why won't my body move?'.

Unable to help it, the boy stood and watched as the jutsu hit him and the rest of the clones, leaving only the original on the field. The jutsu was cancelled immediately after it had hit the boy, something the toad-sennin didn't count on.

Jiraiya's hair had grown longer and fired out many senbon-like hair threads which made short work of what used to be a clone army. Every one had hit there mark, and much to Naruto's displeasure had hit the original as-well. Naruto was left with a few cuts and a senbon hair-thread in his leg, and continued to look a little more fatigued as his clones started to burst.

Although nobody liked to show off their talent as much as Jiraiya, he still felt bad for the boy, thinking that he would move or avoid most of his ninjutsu and not end up as a pin cushion.

That either meant he was getting too good, or the boy needed serious training.

Naruto pulled himself to a sitting position, and ripped the needle out of his leg. He winced, and then looked at the old man.

"Damn it! That hurt you pervert!" Screamed the blond, staring at his knee regaining himself.

"I thought you would dodge the attack, but I guess not. It doesn't matter, the fight it over" Jiraiya said calmly, walking over to Naruto. "Look kid, if that was a real fight, you wouldn't of lasted".

Naruto looked up at the sennin, who looked with a serious expression on his face. The boy had never experienced something like that before; a jutsu intended to kill him if he didn't move, and he just froze up. But why? Why did he not move? He needed some training, because if that was a real mission, he would be dead and his team in turn struggling with only two members.

That's when Naruto had a great idea.

"Hey, Ero-sennin, you are a great ninja right? I mean you have to be to defeat me".

"I'm glad you have realized, kid" Jiraiya said, smiling.

"Well, can you help me train then?" asked the boy, sheepishly.

Jiraiya laughed, as he was thinking of making a similar offer to the kid once he became frustrated and tried to storm off. But if he wanted to be trained, the old man could get something out of it.

"Hmmm, I'll think about it, maybe if you buy me lunch I will accept the role as your amazing teacher" Said Jiraiya proudly.

"Sure, what have I got to lose? But, ummm, can you help me out here? My leg is kind of bleeding" Naruto said, getting worried about the extent to which his leg was bleeding.

Jiraiya suddenly realized the damage he had done to Naruto, and mentally smacked himself in the head for not doing anything about it sooner. He jumped across the short distance between them and crouched down, looking at the leg.

He cut the lower half of the boy's trouser leg, revealing his knee and below. The damage wasn't life-threatening, but he might pass out in a couple moments because of the blood loss he seemed to be sustaining.

"Hold still kid" Jiraiya said in a low voice, and began carefully making handseals. Once finished the old man concentrated until his hands were covered in a soothing green glow. He continued to hover it over the boy's leg, but quickly withdrew it to see that it had just about begun to heal itself. Jiraiya was one to brag about his skills, but he knew where he was weak. He was pretty bad at Medical Ninjutsu, and only knew the minimal amount. This allowed him to deal with minor injuries that he seemed to inflict upon himself while out on a mission, and it came in pretty useful.

But it seemed something had beaten him to healing the boy, and Jiraiya could only speculate as to what was doing it, but he had a good guess at the cause of this rapid healing. 'Damn fox' thought Jiraiya.

Naruto looked at the sennin oddly, and then at his leg to see that it was nearly back to normal. This made the boy very happy to know that the very man that almost killed him today had just healed his leg, no questions asked. Not only that, if Naruto took him to lunch he would get a teacher out of it, training to help him become a proper ninja.

Jumping up from his spot and leaping about, Naruto looked at the old man with a smile on his face.

"Come on, Ero-sennin, let's go have some ramen!" said the boy happily. "And besides, I was holding back on you during our fight, I didn't use my number-one killer jutsu".

This peeked Jiraiya's interest. "Holding out? Then by all means, do it now! Wait, what was that name you just called me?".

"Ero-sennin, and if you are sure that you are ready, this technique has beaten the Hokage" Naruto warned, and put his hands into the ram seal, molding chakra.

Jiraiya stood up, crossed his arms and tried to look cool in front of the kid. 'Whatever he has, I will react a little bit, just so he can feel pride in his technique. As if this kid could beat the Hokage'. Jiraiya mused on these thoughts, right up until Naruto performed the jutsu.

"Oiroke no Jutsu!" Shouted Naruto, and he was enveloped in smoke.

The sennin's eyes widened at the sight before him after the smoke had cleared, which revealed a beautiful women, fully naked with little whisps of smoke covering parts of her body.

Naruto had his eyes closed and made a cute pose, and as such didn't realize that Jiraiya had fallen unconscious due to blood loss from his nose not long after the smoke had cleared. Going back to normal, the boy sighed and decided to drag the old man out of the training grounds in the hopes of getting him home with his new master.

"One of the greatest ninja in the world, and yet he is a pervert just like the old man Hokage, is every old guy a pervert or something?" Naruto said to himself, trudging into the forest.

All that could be heard from Jiraiya was mumblings that were inaudible, but if one listened closely, the words "Genius" and "Potential" could be heard.

xXx

Ramen Ichiraku

After Jiraiya had recovered and found himself in Naruto's apartment, the two started talking for an hour or so, about various things the sennin would teach the boy. After this, the two just naturally started talking in a more general fashion, and ultimately ended up talking about their lives so far, despite Jiraiya being slightly vague with the details of his own life. Naruto gave a brief summary of his life so far, and what had happened to him yesterday. Both were getting along well, and had started enjoying each other's company, even with their age gap.

The two then got hungry, and decided that it was time for lunch. Thus Naruto took the two of them to his favourite ramen shop in the world, Ichiraku Ramen.

"So, you can really teach me that much?" The boy asked.

Jiraiya chuckled. "Of course! Taijutsu is one of your worst areas, and fortunately something you can get quite proficient at. It requires you to use that massive amounts of energy you have daily to train your muscles, and also work on your form. I can help you with your chakra control, which is horrible!" Jiraiya paused to eat his ramen, while Naruto pulled a funny face at the man poking holes in his ability.

"Also, I am going to instruct you in Fūinjutsu, if you want that is. It is not something I wish to force you into learning.." Jiraiya said, secretly wanting the boy to accept to learning it. Many ninja's overlook his ninja art, thinking that it is something that doesn't need to be learned. He had spent most of his life becoming a proficient seal master all on his own, and could do amazing things with it, stuff that people could only dream of doing. If that wasn't enough, he hadn't even played around with all of his idea's yet, he still had tons of things to do with Fūinjutsu yet. If someone would follow his lead and take over, he could make the boy into a seal master almost as great as himself. But the art of sealing in itself is incredibly hard to do, and one could not do it without wanting to do it.

Naruto sat there in thought while eating ramen quickly, now having eaten four bowls. "Well, I guess I should learn it, everyone at the academy had something other than there basic techniques to help them, I'll do it!" Naruto said triumphantly, quickening his pace.

Jiraya merely laughed, then smiled at how he now had an apprentice who would inherit his knowledge of Fūinjutsu.

But then it hit Jiraiya; his apprentice wasn't much right now, a LOT of work needed to be done. He needed to start straight away.

"Hey kid, how long do you have until you are put on a team?" Jiraiya asked in a serious tone.

"Ummmm, a week today I think" Naruto asked, still diligently eating ramen.

Jiraiya turned back to his bowl of ramen, and then to the contents of his ninja tool bag strapped to his waist. "I think I can work with that" He said to himself. "Naruto, come here a second, I want to give you something". After saying this, the sennin pulled out a scroll from his side, about the length of his forearm and green.

The boy obliged, curious if anything. For some reason, Naruto trusted this man, there was just something about him that he liked, something that he connected to. During their long conversation the boy opened up more to Jiraiya than anyone he had ever known, and he had even treated the old man to ramen, so trust wasn't an issue. The only thoughts running through Naruto's mind was 'He wants to give me something?'. Everyone looked at him in disgust, and even went as far as to deny his existence, so a gift to him in Naruto's eyes was a very big deal.

Opening up the scroll, Jiraiya pulled out four books, each a different colour.

"Alright kid, you want to learn from the best, I can teach you all I can but I won't be around all the time, so you will have to learn from these in your free time, in fact, all the time you are not training I want you to be reading these' Jiraiya said, handing the books to Naruto.

Naruto stood in shock at receiving the books, as he had never been personally given books to train from. Iruka-sensei allowed him to borrow books from time to time, but only if he returned them within a couple days. Strictly, teachers could not do this, but since the boy could not go into any library due to his 'condition' as the jailor of the Kyuubi, Iruka snuck them out.

"Arigato, Ero-Sennin!" Said Naruto loudly, smiling a honest smile.

"No need for thanks, kid, you need them. There is one for all basics I will teach you; Taijutsu forms and exercises; Ninjutsu theory and chakra theory, which both in turn include practical application and chakra control practice; Breaking Genjutsu for beginners, which will teach you everything you need to know about Genjutsu and how to break them; Fūinjutsu for knuckleheads - everything you will need to know about the basic theory of sealing, as well as how to write a couple of them... Oh yeah! I almost forget, put your hands out" Jiraiya said quickly, a little excited at the result of training the boy. 'If only I had come sooner' He thought.

Naruto placed the books on the side of the counter carefully, and then put his hands out.

Jiraiya ran through a combination of hand seals, and then slapped the boy's hands, saying 'Furuchakura no Omomi'. Naruto's wrists were suddenly covered in black writing, spanning from his wrist to his elbow, before all spinning around wildly. They started to glow red, and then all at once, the end of the writing went straight into the center of Naruto's palms, to which all the writing followed until they all compressed into a symbol in the palm of his hand, which remained to glow red for a couple of moments, until fading to black, and eventually, going invisible.

Once the sealing was complete, Jiraiya grabbed the books and sealed them back up the scroll, putting the scroll in place of the books.

"Ouch!" Naruto said rubbing his hands against his leg, as it burned quite a lot. Jiraiya just stood laughing at the boy, which seemed to make him mad. Despite being mad however, he picked up the scroll and pocketed it.

"Kid, just, do what I say, channel chakra into your palm, and don't stop until I say". Jiraiya said, having another mouthful of ramen.

Naruto looked at the sennin for a moment, and then looked at his palm. He then formed a ram seal, and began forcing chakra to his palm. As he continued doing this, Naruto felt heavier, and heavier, and heavier until he was about to fall down.

"Stop now" Jiraiya said in a calm manner.

Thinking it wise to do so, Naruto stopped and looked at his palm to see that on each one there was a swirling pattern on it, but couldn't continue looked as he his arms fell to there sides.

"What the hell? Why can't I... Move... Ero-sennin?!" Naruto said, trying his best to move around, but instead finding it extremely difficult.

"I've decided for you to use some of my very own training weights! Except mine differ a little to the ordinary chakra weights ninja use" Jiraiya stopped, for effect. "My 'Furuchakura no Omomi' spreads the weight across your whole body, making it twice as effective!" Jiraiya said proudly.

Naruto frowned. "Ok, that makes sense but... I can't move very fast, I'm a sitting duck here you pervert!".

Jiraiya's head jerked up, feeling hurt that the boy didn't recognize his genius. "Pffft, just get used to it kid, if you get as fast as you was when you didn't have the weight, you will have improved drastically. In fact, that is your mission, get as fast as you was by the end of the week with the weights". Jiraiya looked up in thought for a second, before continuing to talk. "I'll teach you the technique today, and make sure you take them off each night to get used to not having the weight. Half an hour a night of jogging around the Konoha I think". Jiraiya said, as Naruto just stood there trying to take all the information in and move around at the same time.

Once the boy processed the information, which took a couple of minutes he went back to his seat. Jumping back onto the seat, he remembered he had weights on, and the seat probably would take his weight now he was four times his original weight (at least that's what Naruto thought it felt like). To his surprised, it had no effect on the stool, as if he weighed the same as he did.

"Ero-sennin? I thought I am really, really heavy? This seat can take my weight..." Naruto said, trying to come up with a reason for it not being effected.

Jiraiya laughed, due to the fact he now had the chance to big up his technique even more. "Do you think I would make such a rookie error with my techniques? The weight only effects you, you weigh exactly the same to everything else" Jiraiya said.

"Really? That's awesome! Just wait I tell Iruka-sensei about this" Naruto said, going back to eat the newly placed ramen on the side.

Jiraiya frowned for a second, before smiling. "I've got a better idea kid, don't tell anyone about the seal just yet, no one can see it so no one will expect it will they? Imagine their faces when you undo the seals when you need to" Jiraiya said, smiling getting bigger after every thought.

Naruto looked up at the old man in confusion, before excepting this and once again went back to eating with his usual zeal.

"Ok, so when do we start training?" Naruto asked, not looking up from his ramen bowl.

The boy felt a hand on his back as he said this, and before he knew it, he was picked up and Shunshin'ed away.

Ayame came out to give the boy some more ramen, but she only saw some smoke clearing from his seat, and a wad of ryo notes on the counter. Shrugging, she began to eat the ramen intended for Naruto and put the cash into the register.

XxX

Third Training Ground

"I didn't even get to finish my ramen! Why couldn't we of just ran here anyway?" Naruto said, picking himself up from the ground at which he had been thrown.

Jiraiya sighed, and then looked down at the boy. "We don't have time for this, let's just start training kid, ok?". Jiraiya cleared his throat and stood up straight. "First, I am going to teach you 'Furuchakura no Omomi', so pay attention!" Jiraiya said, gesturing for Naruto to come foreword to him.

Naruto nodded and walked over, still brushing himself off from being thrown to the ground. Yes, he was just thrown to the ground, and this really annoyed him, but the boy couldn't help but let a massive smile creep over his face as he was about to begin his first lesson. Learning how to control his weights, and with this Naruto could easily become strong, stronger than he could of thought possible. Also, he would be getting more help from Jiraiya, whom now was one of his trusted people, someone who he could rely on. It had only taken such a short time, but for the first time in years, these past couple days had brought Naruto the confidence to train hard. His goal seemed in his grasp, although he had a long way to go. But Naruto didn't mind this, at least he wouldn't have to go all that way alone, not anymore.

"Oh, and kid, just so you are clear, you will meet me here at six every morning, and we will end at six every evening. If you arrive late or try to get out of practice, I will tie you to that post over there and make you go a day without food" Jiraiya said, pointing over to three posts in the distance.

Naruto shuddered at the thought of having no food for a day, and decided that was reason enough to make sure he was early to practice every day. Why would he skip it anyway? He wanted to become strong, and enjoyed training, so the boy just nodded at the old man.

"Let's begin then" Jiraiya said. "Here are the hand-signs".

Naruto watched as he went through them very slowly, and did so himself for some time, trying to make his hands run through the signs as smoothly as the sennin's. The boy had practiced all the signs before, and so it didn't take him too long to get used to the movements.

But, learning how to do something and actually doing it was two totally different things.

As stated before, the boy's control with chakra was anything but perfect, and this resulted in him discharging way too much chakra intended for the jutsu, doing nothing to his weights.

Jiraiya just shook his head. "Way too much chakra, no wonder you had a rough time at the academy". The sennin could only imagine the boy's trouble with a simple clone with that much chakra, and sighed when he realized that the academy didn't pay attention to this.

Naruto just looked at his hands in confusion. "I used barely any though, Ero-sennin?".

Jiraiya paced around for a few moments, before coming to the conclusion that they would have to work on control before anything. While he was doing this, Naruto kept on attempting the jutsu, trying to make it work, but to no avail.

"Ok, for now, we will learn another jutsu, one that should be a little easier than this one, and it will help with your chakra control" Said the old man, now with his head up facing the boy.

All Naruto heard from the conversation was 'New jutsu' due to his concentration. Luckily, this was all that was needed for him to stop completely and look at the man, bright smile gleaming off his face.

'How could this boy possibly not learn anything in the academy, he is practically jumping to learn a new jutsu right now' Jiraiya mused as he looked at Naruto, who was bobbing up and down with excitement. "Ok, I was thinking about it and I would like to use you as a test subject for my new techniques, hence why I'm teaching you the 'Furuchakura no Omomi'" Jiraiya said as Naruto nodded, until frowned at the 'test subject' part, realizing what it meant.

"So you didn't know if it would actually work?" Naruto questioned, slightly annoyed.

Jiraiya looked up at the sky and scratched his head. "I have tried it on toads before, but never on a person, it isn't that old a technique".

If Naruto thought that this man was cool and a suitable teacher, these thoughts would have been erased from his mind after learning that he would be learning Jiraiya's dodgy jutsu, stuff that he didn't know if worked on humans properly.

"Don't worry, no need for the disappointed look, this next one works, I've even tested it" Jiraya said as Naruto's head sprung up, smile slowly stretching across his face. "It's called 'Kekkai: Eien no Hōjin', a modified version of a barrier jutsu which allows one to sense anything within a certain range".

Naruto felt a little disappointed to learn that it wasn't anything that could blow up or make things burn. For some reason that has always appealed to him. 'Note to self, go find the Hokage and ask him to teach me some fire release' the boy thought as Jiraiya ran through some hand-signs.

Clapping his hands together, a light grey, transparent sphere shot out from Jiraiya with him staying at the center, until it encased the whole of the training ground. Then, the light grey outline disappeared, and the sennin's hands lowered.

Naruto looked left and right, feeling slightly disappointed with the results. Even though he had been told it was a barrier jutsu, he still thought he would see something cool.

Jiraiya frowned at the boy's disappointment, and how he could not see how excellent this jutsu was. "Naruto, I can sense everything within the barrier, no one can sneak up on me like this, I always know where people are, it can detect genjutsu..." Jiraiya was about to go on, when he realized the boy's disappointment was long since gone and ready to learn. The sennin chuckled. "And the best thing is, it requires loads of chakra, so you won't have to worry about perfect control just yet".

After teaching Naruto the hand-signs as he did before, surprised as the boy picked it up quicker than the last set he had to learn, he instructed the blond to try and perform the jutsu.

Naruto took a deep breath, and started molding some chakra. Flicking through the hand-signs he clapped his hands together, and shouted 'Kekkai: Eien no Hōjin'. Suddenly the same light-grey field shot out of Naruto, stretching across the training field and into the forest, going a little further than Jiraiya's.

After staring for a while, trying to comprehend what was happening, Naruto let out a "Yatta" Before jumping around all over the place.

Jiraiya just stared, impressed at how he got the jutsu first time, and the length of which it stretched. "Hey, kid, well done and all, but stop and try and feel things out. It will take a while to get used to using it" Jiraiya said.

Naruto stopped, and closed his eyes. Firstly, he could only feel darkness, like an empty room with no light. Then, as he focused, the training field started to form in his mind, though a little blurry. Then the surrounding trees, and then Jiraiya. Everything was becoming more clear, and Naruto looked around the field in his mind, noting all the little details, finding small animals like birds coming into his field of vision. It felt amazing, like a vivid image of everything in his mind and he could navigate around it freely, as if he wasn't in his own body, but viewing from another place.

He snapped back into reality when he fell onto one knee, suddenly feeling drained. Jiraya in a split second was by his side, chuckling.

"Easy kid, even with reserves as vast as yours you can't control it. The amount of chakra you just pumped into that jutsu was at least six times the amount I did" Jiraiya said as the boy tried to stand up again.

The barrier decreased in size as Naruto forced himself upright, and went even smaller again when the boy concentrated. But, after a few moments, Naruto was able to walk around again, barrier still up, and so the boy closed his eyes. He wanted to walk around and sense everything, effectively not even using his eyes. Jiraiya saw what the boy was doing and decided not to stop him, admiring his guts.

The blond continued this until he got tired, at which point he was able to run around confidently, and broke the jutsu. Turning around, he was greeted by a clapping Jiraiya, who was impressed by the performance.

"Well done! So you aren't completely useless at learning Jutsu, but the same can't be said for your control" Jiraiya said. Naruto probably would of called the man out for that comment, but he was too tired to do it. The barrier required a lot of chakra, let alone the boy had to pump double the amount required to make it work due to his bad control. Having it open for twenty minutes drained him, let alone doing it all with his weights on.

"Ero-sennin... Can we get... Some ramen" Naruto said, panting.

Jiraiya laughed, and grabbed a scroll from his bag. Opening it revealed two bowls, one full of salad and the other with some kind of soup in it.

"You can't eat ramen all the time, idiot" Jiraiya said, watching the boy's face slowly sink into the ground as he handed him the food. "Starting from today you will eat healthily foods to help with training".

Although reluctant at first, the boy was too hungry to care, and started eating the food.

The sight of Naruto face change from disgust into relief and then back to disgust made the old man laugh, taking pleasure from the boy's obvious dislike.

"Hurry up and eat kid, we still have several hours let before I am going to let you go home, and you have yet to master the 'Furuchakura no Omomi'" Jiraiya said, as the boy started to pick up the pace, but then almost threw up at seeing he had to eat yet more salad.

'The boy has a long way to go' Thought the old man as he continued to watch the boy eat.

xXx

A/N: First Chapter of this story, so what do you think?

I haven't had a lot of experience at writing, and my only other fanfic is a terrible failure, and I really do not want to continue it.

It's just, it's poorly written, maybe this one is too but that one just leaves a sour taste in my mouth every time I read it, so maybe soon I will write it again so it's not completely terrible?

Maybe.

Anyway, Review and stuff, I hope it wasn't too bad.

Oh! Two jutsu in this one.

The first is the 'Furuchakura no Omomi'

This means 'Full Chakra Weights', not a very creative name I know but it doesn't have to be, it's not some move he will be repeating every time he fights someone. It basically makes your whole body heavier, instead of just weighing your arms/legs down, making it far more effective. I know it's a lame idea and some may complain about it, but it won't result in a god-like Naruto or anything, just make him a little stronger than Canon.

The second one is the 'Kekkai: Eien no Hōjin'

Derived from the 'Kekkai: Tengai Hōjin' jutsu, which creates a spherical detection barrier with the user at the centre. At the user's command, the detection barrier can expand, grasping everything in the room. The user is able to detect anything that moves inside the barrier space with their own "sense". The user may also move, the barrier will follow them as they move. But with this new move, it is much harder to detect if one has it open, and it can be used for longer periods of time. So it doesn't just alert your position to every sensor ninja out there, but if a sensor is in the barrier, they will notice.

Anyway, new chapter coming out soon hopefully, depends how long it takes to write with school and all.

Until then, See you all next time..


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Ouch! Can't you give me some tips here, Ero-Sennin?" Asked a rather annoyed Naruto, picking himself up from the floor and running at the tree again.

Jiraiya sat in the grass, drinking from a bottle of sake, laughing every time Naruto fell down from a tree. Naruto was anything but happy with it.

This was there sixth day in training, and the changes were already clear. For the bulk of their training, Taijutsu was drilled into the boy, going over patterns hundreds of times without mistakes, trying to correct the academy's misguided teachings. Also, the sennin decided to start helping Naruto with his team work skills. This involved using his 'Kage Bunshin' as partners (Making two to work with himself, and groups of three clones as opposing teams), having them maintain a henge to distinguish each one. This allowed the boy to experience every position in the formations practiced which were fairly standard. In addition to this, Naruto had gotten used to his weights mostly, exceeding the expectations of Jiraiya who thought it would be six days at the most. Naruto was even a little faster than he was previously without the weights due to Jiraiya chasing him around the Konoha five times a day.

The blond had also learnt to control the 'Kekkai: Eien no Hōjin', now having the control to have it open for hours, and to a greater extent have it open in battle without breaking it. Unfortunately, Naruto as of yet couldn't make very many clones while using the technique, being able to create fifteen tops before he can't control it any longer, and also had found a great problem in his use of the technique so far - he could not sense things very well if his eyes were open. Jiraiya had said the boy needed to work on sensing things with his eyes open as to increase its effectiveness. He could release and put on his 'Furuchakura no Omomi' with ease after figuring out how little chakra to put in. His chakra control was still bad, very bad, but better.

Naruto had also started to get somewhere in his understanding of Genjutsu, knowing the theory behind breaking one and how to break one that has ensnared someone else. He could break them half the time which was better than not being able to do anything at all. His Ninjutsu understanding was pretty good, knowing everything a Genin should know and a little bit more. Though he was still a novice with Fūinjutsu, not understanding a lot of it and only able to write a half-decent storage seal and a poor explosion which failed more often than not. Naruto's handwriting was not excellent to say the least.

But this week of training wasn't supposed to make him an elite, but merely to but him on the right path to becomming a great ninja, or at least that was Jiraiya's goal.

It was about two in the afternoon, and due to his overconfidence, Naruto was being forced to learn tree walking in a day trying to stick to the tree with his chakra. This was tedious and very, VERY annoying for Naruto who just couldn't get the right amount of Chakra he needed. The blond had been trying for an hour, and he was constantly falling onto his back - something that hurt alot. 'Not to self, don't brag about your skills in front of Ero-sennin!' Thought Naruto as he realised that Jiraiya probably knew he would have so much trouble with the exercise.

"Shut up, gaki, just run up to the top of that tree and you will have your ramen" Said the Sannin, laughing to himself. When the boy heard 'Ramen', something that he wasn't allowed to eat because it wasn't good for him, the pace suddenly quickened and Naruto ran up the tree. He got a meter over his last attempt before pushing too much chakra to succeed and coming tumbling down.

"Damn it!" Naruto said, getting up once again and molding some chakra.

He looked at the tree again, the many splintered foot shapes decorating the side of the tree, the many, many lines closely packed together running up the tree. It had only been an hour, but he had had the 'Eekkai: Eien no Hōjin' up for the whole time, and his control was so bad it took a lot of chakra to get the right balance to walk on the tree. Naruto hated giving up, but realized that he only had a limited amount of energy this time, and if he continued to do so he would run out after another five attempts.

The blond sighed, sat on the ground, and started to think about the problem at hand. He hadn't actually thought about what he was doing until now, just trying to randomly guess how much chakra to use on each attempt and hope it was right. Clearly, this didn't work out very well as he had advanced two meters up the tree since starting. If he didn't have stupidly high reserves, he would never of been able to get that far without simply passing out.

The reason Naruto came to the conclusion of thinking about it was what he had been told during his last 'team' training session. Jiraiya was an enemy ninja, and the boy had to bring him down with his team. Everytime Naruto found the old man, he charged in making as many clones as he could and throwing as many attacks as possible, trying to get a hit. This method usually ended up with the blond getting hit hard and having to take a break for five minutes. Jiraiya's punches hurt.

It was when it was clear Naruto wasn't going to stop this method after repeating it over fifteen times, so he was called on it. Jiraiya told him that he needed to learn to think about the task at hand, think before running in, putting himself and his team at risk if he was reckless. Naruto didn't like the thought of his team getting hurt because of him, and took the words seriously, and spent much of the day thinking of his actions and how they would effect his team.

So, Naruto sat there thinking about how to actually achieve climing the tree, occasionally looking up at the tree at the marks he had left, and then returning to his thoughtful position. After a while, the blond realized that if he put too much chakra into the technique, the bark would end up splintering and him falling off. However, if he didn't use enough, he would not stick.

This took the boy a short amount of time to figure out, as it was a relatively simple conclusion to draw from the exercise. Naruto got up and walked towards the tree, which much the sennin's eyebrow raise slightly.

Jiraiya had been impressed that the boy took time to think about the task in hand, and was now curious as to what he had come up with. Eager to watch, the old man put his bottle down, and stood up, walking closer to the tree.

Naruto placed his foot on the tree, closed his eyes, and starting molding chakra to send to his foot. As he pushed the most minimal amount of chakra to his foot, he felt a light tugging at his foot to stay on the surface, although it wouldn't support much weight due to how small the the foot was being pulled. Increasing the chakra ever so slightly, the tugging became stronger, and stronger, until the the area around his foot cracked, and then splintered in attempting to engulf the boy's foot.

'Damn, one more time' Naruto thought, moving his foot to a non-splintered spot of the tree. Doing the same thing as before, but this time more carefully, the boy felt that he was reaching the tree's limit, and tried to get a feel for the amount of chakra he was using. Once he was certain he had the right amount of chakra, Naruto stopping channeling the chakra, only to try it again, but quicker.

This went on for a couple times until the boy was certain he had the right amount, and started walking back to his run up postition, five meters from the tree.

Jiraiya crossed his arms and smiled, mentally patting himself on the back for the amazing job he had done teaching the boy.

Naruto took a deep breath, and sprinted towards the tree, channeling the needed chakra to his foot as he did so. He placed one foot on the tree, and pushed hard, launching himself up the tree. The blond took step after step, running way past his previous scores, and nearly made it to the top before not putting enough chakra into his foot. He lost his footing, but luckily fell onto a branch.

Staring at the tree for a second, Naruto shouted. "Yatta! Ero-sennin, did you see that? I must be a genius or something" the boy proclaimed, smiling a great deal before standing on the branch, and tried to walk upside down on it.

He was careful at first, but then started to chuckle, then laughing at his new accomplishment. This continued until his foot unstuck to the tree, and he fell down to the floor. It was a long fall, one that the boy didn't care to repeat.

Jiraiya was just laughing profusely. "Gaki, you are many things, but you are not a genius!" the sennin said, unable to contain his laughter.

Naruto reddened, before becoming quite annoyed, and continued his attempts at the tree with the hopes that he would of gotten it by now and show the pervert that he was a genius. Though when he tried this time, he didn't get as far as he did the last time, losing his footing roughly half way up the tree.

This continued for another twenty minutes, at which point Jiraiya called for a break.

The progress this boy had made was amazing in Jiraiya's opinion, being seemingly idiotic one moment to performing tasks that take twice the time to learn for a prodigy. He was a strange one, who lacked many things great ninja had. But he had guts and never gave up.

"Alright, you have done well gaki, but you are going to run out of chakra soon. Go get something to eat and rest up for a couple hours, meet me here at five and then we will continue. I have to do some research, since I haven't had time recently" The old man said, giving off a fiendish smile.

Naruto merely shook his head. "You pervert, it's not research at all! At least give me some company to eat with or something?" The boy suggested.

Jiraiya stopped his smile and looked at the boy, remembering everything he had went through as a child and how he had no one, absolutely no one.

Then, slamming his fist into his hand, Jiraiya spoke. "I've got an idea". With that, the Sennin bit his thumb and quickly whipped through some hand-seals, slamming his hands on the ground before a small cloud of smoke appeared. It started to clear, revealing two curious small toads.

One was dark orange, with purple markings around his face, mouth and stomac accompanied with a dark blue vest. The other was yellow in color, with similar markings around his eyes, mouth and stomach, only they were orange. He also wore the same blue vest the other toad had on.

Naruto stared at the two toads in front of him, confused and wondering why Jiraiya had called these two small toads here.

"Yo" The dark-skinned toad said, looking towards the old man. "Whatcha need? I hope you have sweets though, otherwise my brother here won't do anything for you".

Jiraiya chuckled at this statement, before waving a dismissing hand at the comment. "You two are to accompany Naruto while he eats, and then watch over him while he trains after, I will be back at five to see if he is doing well. This is Naruto by the way..." Jiraiya said pointing at Naruto. "Oh, and he will buy you whatever food you want, see you later Naruto!" Jiraiya finished by vanishing, leaving a gust of leaves in his place.

Naruto took a couple seconds to comprehend what had happened. "Wait, I have to buy food for you guys as well?!" Naruto said, crossing his arms.

The little toads hopped over to the boy, and the dark orange toad examined the boy. The toad wasn't really impressed with what he saw; a short, skinny idiot who had really bright clothing. The toad next to him merely looked at the sky, seemingly unaware of his surroundings.

Letting out a sigh, Naruto looked down at the two toads, deciding to make the best of the situation. "Uhh, Hi, my name is Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki! I like ramen and playing pranks, and I dislike the time it takes for instant ramen to cook. I am going to be Hokage one day, so watch out" Said the boy confidently, smiling profusely. "Who are you two?".

The toads looked at each other, and then at the blond. "I'm Gamakichi, and this here is Gamatatsu, my brother" The orange toad said, pointing at the other toad. "I like playing games, eating sweets and relaxing. I don't like no having sweets and being told off by bigger toads who think they are better than me, and I want to be like my Dad" Gamakichi finished, nudging his brother who took a second to look down to the blond boy.

"I'm Gamatatsu, I like food, and, uhhh, what was the question again?" The yellow toad asked, face relaxed and smiling.

Gamakichi merely muttered 'idiot' as Gamatatsu smiled. The two in the boy's eyes were better company than being on his own, so he decided to just bring them to Ichiraku's Ramen, some place he hadn't been in three days - absolute torture, seeming as Jiraiya had replaced his instant ramen with vegatables and other various healthy food.

"It doesn't matter, let's go get some food!" Naruto shouted, turning to walk in the direction of town. He stopped and looked at the two smaller toads. "Hop on I guess?".

The brothers looked at each other, and then shrugged. They hopped onto the boy's shoulders, who proceeded to walk off grabbing his wallet from his pocket.

'I hope these guys don't eat too much' Thought the boy.

xXx

Ichiraku's Ramen

Naruto stared in shock as Gamatatsu finished eating his fifth bowl of miso ramen, wondering where the toad put the food. Although his brother Gamakichi had only had two bowls, Naruto was still a little surprised. Initially, he had thought the two would share a bowl together, costing very little. But this was like he was feeding two other fully-grown people, which wasn't as nice to his wallet as Naruto wanted. But, despite this, the boy was having a great time, as he had been talking to the two toads about his training and his dreams, and they in turn told him about their lives and what they are meant to do. Gamakichi was to grow up to be the toad boss summon, as he was the older brother, son of the current boss toad, while Gamatatsu wanted to just eat and watch clouds. All in all, he liked the two of them, and wanted them to come around more.

"Ahhh, That hit the spoooot" Gamatatsu said, singing the last word. This was then followed by his bowl being collected by Ayame, the waitress of Ichiraku.

"Hi Naruto-kun, friends of yours... I presume?" Ayame said, slightly nervous at the two talking toads eating in the restaurant. She knew all about summoning animals before, but had never seen one up close in real life before, and honestly it was kind of weird.

Teuchi, the owner of the restaurant, and his daughter Ayame have always served Naruto, who never have hated him like the rest of the village. This was the boy's regular hang out spot if he had the money, and a safe place to go if anyone would try and harm him. If they did, they were thrown out of the restaurant, and failure to do so would lead to the Hokage being told, which made everyone nervous. Many knew of how the Hokage visited the boy often and wouldn't let an act of cruelty towards Naruto go without punishment, which led some to believe that the 'demon' had brain-washed the Hokage. Not many, but some, and this disgusted Teuchi and Ayame both. Naruto was always allowed in any time, even sometimes when they weren't open, and would be given free bowls if he couldn't pay somehow.

Naruto looked up, and then laughed with a smile on his face. "Hello! Yeah, this is Gamakichi here, and the yellow guy is Gamatatsu. Hey, you two, I would like you to meet the best waitress in the whole world, Ayame!".

Ayame blushed, and then bowed at the two toads, who in turn said 'Hi' together at her, also bowing.

"Any friends of Naruto-kun is always welcome here, he is our favourite customer here, also the most regular" Ayame said, smiling. "And he is a ninja now, one step closer to becomming the Hokage!".

After getting embarrassed, Naruto quickly finished his last bowl of ramen, before getting up. "Thanks for the ramen Ayame, you don't know how much I needed it. Thank Teuchi for me!" Said Naruto who started to run off, only to stop and come back after several moments.

"I almost forgot about you two, come on, let's go!" The boy said to the toads.

"Ok, Thank you from me and my brother, Gamatatsu, let's go" Gamakichi said, hopping onto Naruto's shoulder.

"Thank you for the food" The yellow toad said lazily before hopping onto the other shoulder.

Then Naruto ran off towards the training field, faster than ever now he had had ramen.

So fast, however, when he ran around the corner he didn't see the little kid walking around it as well, and bumped head first into him. Naruto went flying over him, tumbling across the ground and skidded to a stop, while the two toads hopped off as he started to trip, safely landing on the ground next to him. The kid fell backwards onto his back, skidding a fair distance, bewildered by what had happened.

Naruto, still a little dizzy, got up and brushed himself off. Then, looking at the boy he had run into, he walked over to help him up. "Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going, need a hand?".

The other boy looked up, before jumping up without Naruto's help with a massive frown on his face. Naruto looked curiously at the boy.

The boy wore a yellow shirt with the Konoha symbol in red with a long blue scarf, wrapping around his neck and onto the floor. He had grey shorts and standard shinobi sandals. The boy would of looked normal with all this, but he also wore a grey helmet with a tuft of brown hair coming out the top. Naruto thought it looked rather ridiculous and wondered why the boy wore such a thing.

"How dare you push me over! Who do you think you are?! I am the grandson of the Hokage, Konohamaru!" The boy shouted in anger of Naruto.

The blond stared at the boy. "You are related to ojisan?" Said Naruto with a look of confusion.

"Yes! I Bet you are scared now because you don't want to mess with the grandson of the Hokage" Said Konohamaru with confidence.

Naruto stared for a while longer, getting rather annoyed with the boy. "Look, I don't care if you are the grandson of the Hokage, I'm sorry for knocking you over, I have to get going now".

Naruto started to turn to go and get Gamakichi and his brother, but the boy moved into his way, blocking Naruto's path.

"You can't run away! I need to teach you a lesson" Konohamaru said, or rather shouted.

"Kid, I need to get going, move out of my way or you are going to get hurt" Said the blond, shoving past the angry boy.

Not wanting to be dismissed so easily, Konohamaru ran in front of the blond once more, but this time when he stopped, he fell into a poorly constructed taijutsu stance. 'Hah, I bet he is too scared to hit the 'Honorable Grandson', what a joke' thought the boy.

Naruto frowned, but could see that he was getting no where with the boy. Thus, he saw no alternative than to fight Konohamaru to teach him a lesson; just because you are related to the Hokage, doesn't mean you can treat anyone in what ever way you want. Also, Naruto was itching to fight someone else than Jiraiya with his taijutsu half-fixed.

"If you want a fight kid, you have got one. But this is the middle of town, we can't fight here" Naruto said walking past the kid and signalling the two toads to jump onto his shoulder. "Follow me to the place I train, and fight me there".

Konohamaru watched as the two toads jumped onto Naruto, slightly surprised to find that not only someone would fight him without being scared of the Hokage coming after them, they sound like the actually want to fight him. The boy had never experienced it before, and was confused by it.

"I, uhh, ok then" Said the boy.

"Great, follow me, if you can keep up that is" Naruto said, running off down the street.

Konohamaru frowned, but followed after, having to try really hard to keep up. "Just you wait! I'll show you that I am one hundred times better than you".

"Naruto, are you really going to fight that kid? He looks about eight years old" Gamakichi said. This caused Konohamaru to fall down in surprise that a toad could talk, and rolled into a wall because of it. He was knocked out when Naruto picked him up and started carrying him toward the training ground.

'I hope this kid is good at fighting' Naruto thought, speeding off faster than before.

XxX

Third Training Ground

As the boy slowly opened his eyes, he found himself in the middle of a field.

He tried sitting up, but his body was stiff and muscles all tight. Forcing himself up, he looked around to see many trees surrounding the field he was in, three stumps at one end and a lake at the other end. Looking around where he was sitting, he saw two toads sitting down near him, watching the blond boy. Looking at Naruto, Konohamaru didn't think much; he was just sitting down with his eyes closed, seemingly unaware of his surroundings. At that moment, something moved in the corner of the boy's eye. He looked around the edges of the field, trying to see what was there, until kunai came flying out of some bushes. It's target was Naruto, who was sitting in the middle of the field, eyes closed. The kunai flew without sound, spinning a little as it flew toward Naruto. Konohamaru started to panic, and tried to warn the blond before he got hit.

Just as he was about to shout however, Naruto moved slightly to the left, making the kunai sail past him silently, and then embedding itself into the ground away from him. Suddenly, more kunai shot out of the bushes accompanied with some shuriken, at which point the blond lept up in the air, kunai in hand and started deflecting and dodging the projectiles from all angles.

This continued as the blond kept on blocking and dodging, though taking some minor damage from all the attacks. Naruto had his eyes closed even now, and hadn't opened them throughout the time he had been watched. Repeatedly weapons flew at him, until Naruto put his hand in his jacket, and pulled out a couple smoke bombs. Throwing them to the floor, red and blue smoke erupted from the ground, covering the area around the blond.

More and more weapons flew though, despite the smoke screen, with each one scewing the smoke slightly. After a while, a little speck of orange could be seen in the center, dodging the attacks smoothly.

The barrage of weapons slowed down until no more were thrown, and the smoke died down, revealing Naruto standing where he had been, a couple cuts on his arm but otherwise exactly the same. There was an awkward silence for a number of seconds, with Naruto still standing around, looking as if he was waiting for something.

Then, from all sides of the field, men started creeping out of the thick forrest which had been hiding there positions. All of them were dressed in leather armor, with various attachments and coloured fabric hanging off themselves. They all had the same black face mask with brown hair, tied up in a pony tail with bangs framing each side of their faces. If one looked closely enough, there seemed to be three types of guys; the men with one sleeve missing, and the uncovered arm wrapped in a chain, swirling down and ending on his wrist. The chain was covered in spikes. These men had coloured pieces of fabric tied around themselves for belts, and seemed to stand behind the other men.

The other two kinds of guys were fairly similar, both having full black armor on, one shoulder pad on the right shoulder with many leather straps coloured a dark red. The only difference between the two types were one had scarred faces and kunai, the others with bandaged faces and tantōs.

They all ran toward Naruto, getting faster and faster while the blond cracked his knuckles. Konohamaru was scared.

Never before had he seen so many enemies in his life, so many people that could and would harm in, and in the village no less. On top of that, they were all going after Naruto, charging at him from all angles. There was no way he would survive this group of attackers, as there were about fifteen of them and only one of him. They all seemed to be slightly proficient as ninja, as they had all thrown kunai and shuriken at their target, not looking like they were off target. But something wasn't right about these people, there was just something not quite right about the scene.

But, as they charged, Naruto made some hand seals, eyes still closed. Suddenly black markings spun from his palm on his arms, covering the area between his wrist and elbow. The attackers came closer, and one took a swing with his tantō at Naruto, only for the boy to disappear for a second from Konohamaru's vision. Moments later, the blond reappeared behind another attacker about five meters away from where he was sitting, grabbing the attacker's arm and putting it behind his head and making it drop his weapon. Naruto picked up the tantō and blocked an attack from another man, also wielding a tantō, who tried to save his teammate by attacking the blond.

Naruto barely block the attack, and almost lost his arm in the process. He then over-powered the attacker whose attack he blocked, sending the man flying, and Naruto threw the other man he had grabbed earlier into the same direction.

Using his new found speed, the blond darted off in the other direction where there were less attackers, throwing kunai as he went. These were blocked easily, not slowing down any of his attackers. Then, he stopped and turned around, embedding his sword into the ground as he did so.

His eyes were still closed, but his body language gave off the impression he was looking around, trying to plan his next move. Finally, he decided to engage the closest one to him, and threw a kunai in the direction of the attacker, jumping in the air as he did so.

The blond came down on the man with a kick, which was unable to be dodged due to the speed Naruto was moving at, so it was blocked, and they exchanged blows for a few moments, no one hitting one another. Then Naruto ducked a punch from the attacker, and followed with a punch directly into the man's stomach.

Once he connected the punch, the attacker disappeared in a puff of smoke, confusing Konohamaru. By this point, Konohamaru had ran from his last position toward the wooden poles at the far end of the field, half hiding behind them.

Once the attacker had disappeared, Naruto stood up straight, took a deep breath, and then ran towards the other men.

Konohamaru watched as Naruto kept getting attacked and throwing attacks and dodging, all with his eyes closed. But this wasn't what confused the boy. There was something bugging him about every man dressed in similar outfits. They all, despite looking scary and stong, moved in the same way - clumsy and rough. The way the attacked and defended was the same throughout, and all used the same sloppy stance. Looking even closer, the boy noticed how despite some wielding tantōs, none were very good with them and after the first couple swings were quickly dealt with. The way they moved, the way they were fighting, this was all the same to the way Naruto was fighting, almost identical. Naruto was just faster and stronger than the rest, though not by a massive gap.

"They aren't real people, you know kid" A voice from behind Konohamaru said.

Turning around, the kid was shocked to see the toads from earlier hopping up next to him.

"What do you mean?" The kid questioned, wanting to know the reason why the situation was so strange.

One toad stopped next to him, looked up and fell back onto the grass, while the other sat down the other side of Konohamaru and looked out at Naruto.

"Naruto over there is using his Kage Bunshin to make enemies, and henging his clones to look like scary ninja. The kid does have a very good henge" Gamakichi said, pausing to watch the boy more closely. "Though, his taijutsu is sloppy and he can't wield a tantō very well".

Konohamaru stared at the toad for a while, thinking about what he was being told. Naruto could perform the Kage Bunshin technique - something many Chunin can't do and he was making many of them. He was also henging them all individually to different people, which required a fair amount of skill to maintain while fighting.

"That's amazing, but how come Naruto has his eyes closed?" Konohamaru asked, slightly bewildered about how he almost had a fight with this guy.

The toad chuckled. "Naruto is using a jutsu, one which allows him to sense everything around the area, probably everything in the training field. But he doesn't have the skill to do it with his eyes open, which is why he misses things from time to time. If he could do it with his eyes open, you couldn't surprise him with an attack. Also, he can only make so many Kage Bunshin with the jutsu active" Said the toad, still watching closely.

"How many can he make without the jutsu then?" Asked the boy.

"It differs, but from what he told me, over one hundred, maybe over two hundred".

Konohamaru stood wide mouthed at this information, and quickly decided to make sure if he is going to fight the blond, he better make sure it's a friendly fight.

Naruto pushed chakra into his legs and shot foreword into two clones, who both disappeared after falling to the floor. The blond merely rolled as he fell and stood back up, staring at the clones left standing. He was feeling slightly tired after fighting off the clones, even though he had only made about fifteen of them he was only slightly faster than them and although his 'Kekkai: Eien no Hōjin' gave him view of everything, it was hard to use it in close range battle, and it seemed he needed to use it more often to get better with it. He had taken a few hits, nothing serious but they hurt.

There were three clones left, each one looking slightly different. Each one looked at one another, and nodded. One threw his kunai at the ground, and the other sheethed his tantō. Then, they all made some hand seals, ending with each one standing up straighter and looking stronger. The only visable change was the clone with the chained arm, having black markings identical to Naruto on his forearm.

Naruto crouched down slightly, and changed his stance. Suddenly the three clones dashed around the blond, circling him with impressive speed while Naruto stayed still. Suddenly, one jumped in the air, looking to come down with a kick onto the blond while one of the others rushed in to have a shot from the ground. The last one stayed circling.

Naruto didn't move for several moments as the enemies moved closer, until he finally lept from his position toward the guy on the ground. The two then were seemingly playing a game of chicken, the clone cocking his fist back ready to hit Naruto, whereas the blond just smiled and picked up the speed. At the last minute, Naruto ducked and spun around past the clone, knocking it's foot as he went by. The clone fell and hit the floor, but only disappeared with a kunai going into it's head. Once he did this, the blond had to turn and block a kick from the clone that jumped into the air, which was followed by Naruto being kicked in the back from behind by the last clone, who proceeded to throw Naruto toward the lake.

The two clones started to chase Naruto as he hit the water and sunk under it's surface. The two clones walked over to it's edge, and looked down, not wanting to go into it. Suddenly, a fist came up out of the water, narrowly missing one clone's face. The was followed by three Naruto's leaping out of the water, each one going high in the air. One started to throw many shuriken down onto the position of the enemies, while the other grabbed the original's arm. The Naruto-clone which came out of the water first sprinted towards one of the clones, kunai in hand and tackled him, which was followed by the two getting hit by shuriken.

The clone that grabbed Naruto started swinging him around, building up speed until the original was thrown down towards the last enemy. Unfortunately for the last enemy clone, he was too busy blocking kunai to do anything about the orange blur flying towards him, and was hit straight in the gut by the head of Naruto.

Konohamaru watched as Naruto finished off the last clone, and literally jumped up in excitement. Once he found out it was Naruto's Kage Bunshin, he had rather enjoyed the fighting, and had decided that he wanted to be as awesome as the blond.

Naruto got up from the ground, dusted himself off, and then slowly walked over to Konohamaru and the toads. He was feeling really tired, and deactivated his 'Kekkai: Eien no Hōjin'. Konohamaru ran over to Naruto, who just opened his eyes and stopped walking.

"Naruto-sensei! I will be your new student, you are clearly an amazing ninja, so you must teach me how to be like you" Exclaimed Konohamaru.

Naruto smiled, and scratched the back of his head. Compliments were still a foriegn concept to him, but he liked the kid a lot more than he did a couple seconds ago. He thought for a couple moments about teaching the boy things, before coming up with a brilliant idea.

"Konohamaru, I'll teach you under one condition" Naruto said, standing up straight.

"What is it, Naruto-sensei?" The boy asked.

Naruto laughed, and then spoke. "If you can learn my own secret technique, you can be my student".

Konohamaru stared wide eyed at this, and nodded furiously. "Teach me, teach me!" He shouted.

"Ok, ok, it's called the 'Oiroke no Jutsu'" Naruto said, forming a ram seal with his hands. "I'll show you what it looks like, and then I will teach you!".

Naruto was covered in a puff of smoke, and Konohamaru was confused as he thought it was a regular henge. But the smoke started parting slowly, and revealed a tall, female Naruto who was naked, little whisps of smoke covering her body.

The kid stared in admiration. "Naruto-sensei, you are amazing! This is the best technique I've ever seen!" Said Konohamaru as he jumped up and down on the spot, excited to learn the technique.

Naruto changed back, scratching the back of his head, blushing.

"Stop, stop, you are too kind. But enough of this, let's go and teach you how to do it. Step one, research! Follow me" Naruto said, as he marched off in the direction of town, seemingly unaffected by his fatigue. Konohamaru followed closely behind.

'Who knows, maybe Ero-sennin is rubbing off on me' Naruto thought, bouncing out of the field.

Gamakichi laughed as Gamatatsu looked down from watching the clouds.

"What are you laughing at?" The latter questioned.

"That kid Naruto, he is so strange. Did you see his own technique?" Said Gamakichi. "It's obvious how he got Jiraiya to teach him, huh?".

"Mmmmm, that cloud looks like a marshmellow" Gamatatsu said.

"Idiot..." Muttered Gamakichi.

Gamakichi then hopped around the training field and began picking up the tantōs on the floor, surprised and confused as the how Naruto came across one of these. Gamatatsu helped after coming out of his daydream about food.

xXx

Somewhere in town

"You've almost got it Konohamaru, you need to practice a little more and then you will have it down perfect!" Said Naruto, as he watched the boy perform an alright 'Oiroke no Jutsu.

"Really sensei? So I'm close to mastering it?" Konohamaru asked, changing back to his normal form.

Naruto cuckled warmly. "Of course! You are a fast learner, I think you will become a great Shinobi".

Konohamaru looked down with a blush, and kicked the ground awkwardly. He needed to tell the blond something, but didn't know how to say it. Naruto however was oblivious to this behaviour, and was too overwhelmed by his gaining of a student to notice such things.

"Oh! And I have to give you something, as a reward for learning the technique, you know?" Naruto said, reaching into his pocket. Konohamaru just stared blankly at him. "Here".

Naruto handed over a pair of green goggles from his pocket to the boy in front of him. Konohamaru didn't know what to say, and just stared at it for a while. This made the blond doubt his gift, and the two stayed in an awkward silence for a number of moments.

"Naruto.." Konohamaru fidgeted awkwardly. "I can't be your student anymore!".

Naruto physically jumped when he heard that, but only had a look of confusion on his face and seemed to have no anger at the statement.

"Your dream is to be Hokage, and so is mine! So we are destined to be rivals, but right now I am not much of a fight compared to you, so I have to get stronger until I can beat you". Konohamaru shouted, and looked up at Naruto, who was smiling.

"Once you get a headband like mine" Naruto gestured toward his ninja forehead protector. "Then we will fight, but until then, I'll help you get stronger!" Naruto said, getting fired up. He loved making friends, even if they were four years his junior, and he also liked competitions. This way, he could do both and have fun.

Konohamaru was slightly shocked, but gripped the goggles tightly. "Thank you, Nii-san!".

Naruto smiled, and ruffled the boy's hair. The blond was feeling incredibly happy, he had another person that recognised him and wanted to be with him. His whole life he had been alone, alone and hated. Nobody liked him, and he had nothing. But, this past week had brought so many new people into his life who cared for him, a foriegn feeling for Naruto which left him feeling a little confused, but mostly happy.

"Anyway, I have to get going now, but for your first training session, I'll leave some clones here for you to spar with. Follow them to a spot in the woods over there, I used to go there to train". Naruto quickly made five Kage Bunshin. "This is all I can make right now, otherwise I won't survive training in a second. Later Konohamaru". Naruto lept from the spot he was standing and quickly dashed across the roof tops.

Konohamaru and the clones watched until Naruto was completely gone. The boy looked at the group of Kage Bunshin impartially, while the clones looked about one another.

"Ok then, let's go!" Said one of the clones, starting to run in the direction of the wood.

"Hey, who said you can be boss?" Another clone said.

"Well, if you can catch me, you can be leader" Said the first clone, already gotten twenty meters. Suddenly, the whole group came alive with movement, dashing off into the distance in an attempt to catch the clone in front.

Konohamaru stared at the clones running away in the distance, before realising he was supposed to be following them, and made an attempt to catch up. 'Why does he always run so fast?' Thought the boy as the clones increased their speed, and now being quite far from Konohamaru. It would be a long time before any of the clones realised that the boy wasn't with them and they had to go back and find Konohamaru, who had gotten lost after falling behind too much.

XxX

Third Training Field

Naruto sprinted into the training ground, feeling rather tired. After training earlier and teaching Konohmaru the blond wasn't sure if he could handle a couple more hours of training. But he would do it anyway, and when he appeared on the grounds, he found Jiraiya leaning against one of the three wooden posts, writing one of his 'books'.

"Hey, Ero-Sennin, sorry I'm late, but you see...". Naruto was unable to finish as Jiraiya jumped up from where he was sitting.

"Gaki! You are a ninja now, there are no excuses for being late! Being on time could be the difference between life and death!" Jiraiya shouted as the blond's head gradually lowered. "But, I guess I can let it slide this time, seeming as you weren't wasting time".

Jiraiya stood smirking at the boy as his head shot up, wearing a massive smile with his cheeks slightly red. They both looked at each other for a moment, Naruto feeling incredibly happy due to Jiraiya's acceptance of him as well as Konohamaru, and the old man looked at the blond with a welcoming expression, and thought about how easy it was for not just the boy, but himself to trust and talk to this kid. True, he taught the boy's father so it would only be natural for the two to have a connection - but this was not the case. Minato and Naruto were so different. One was a prodigy genius, liked by everyone and would already have the answer to every puzzle Jiraiya hit him with regarding jutsu, whereas Naruto was clumsy, acted before he thought about things, loud, not liked, and yet he had more guts than anyone Jiraiya had known. Naruto was far better as a student for the old man than Minato, because the blond was like a miniture version of Jiraiya himself.

After a couple moments of this contemplation, Naruto finally spoke up.

"So... Ero-Sennin, what are we doing now anyway?" Naruto asked, putting his hands behind his head, feeling quite happy.

Jiraiya snapped out of his thoughts, and looked at the blond. "Eager to learn from the best, I understand, I am pretty amazing. It's time to make your Fūinjutsu actually work kid".

As he said this, Jiraiya pulled a scroll from his clothing, and threw it at Naruto.

"It's a storage scroll, and inside is lots of ink and paper. I want you to practice writing your storage seals, then write some explosive tags. I'll watch over you, but if your seals aren't good enough or you make a mistake, I throw a kunai. In fact, I will just throw a kunai at random times as well, just to make things fun" Jiraiya said, chuckled as he said the last part.

"Whaaat?! That's not fair, how will I dodge the kunai if I'm too busy writing out the seals?" The blond questioned, feeling slightly scared at the thought of being a kunai pin cushion.

Jiraiya just laughed. "Use the jutsu I taught you. Try and focus on making the seals and watching out for kunai, that's the real reason we are doing it. 'Kekkai: Eien no Hōjin' isn't very good if you can't open your eyes while using it".

Naruto was about to argue and ask to do something better, but could see the logic in doing it. As much as he hated to admitt it, his handwriting was terrible, and Jiraiya had discussed with him the possibilities of Fūinjutsu. Once he gets used to writing the basic seals, Jiraiya would start teaching him more advanced stuff he could use in combat, and eventually show him how to make his own jutsu with it. The blond was incredibly eager to learn this, so reluctantly sat down and opened the scroll.

As soon as the boy started writing, he had to dodge a kunai, and another one, and another one. For the first ten minutes, Naruto was constantly dodging the kunai being launched at him, screwing up every attempt to make a storage seal he did. But, he slowly started to get better at it, and after half an hour every kunai thrown was dodged easily and less were being thrown. After an hour had gone by, Naruto had made a decent number of storage seals and an even larger amount of explosive seals, each one slightly better than the last.

This was when Jiraiya called a stop on the exercise.

"Alright kid, you need to practice your writing every day, but your sensing was good" Jiraiya said as Naruto scratched the back of his head with a blush. "Normally we would end in an hour, but we have not got long left until you join a team, so I'm extending training time three hours".

Naruto looked for a second, and then fell to the floor.

"Another three hours on top? I won't survive..." The blond said, sinking further into the floor.

Jiraiya hit the boy in the head. "That's not the words of a future Hokage! But, if you don't want to do it, thats fine. It's just, if you impressed your sensei and shown you are a great ninja I was going to teach you a new jutsu, but you will not be good enough without this extra time...".

The blond lept up from his spot and ran up to Jiraiya, fire burning in his eyes.

"I can do it! Honestly, I will impress him and you can teach me the jutsu, please?" Naruto shouted, seemingly full of energy.

Jiraiya smirked, loving how easy it is to motivate the blond. "I guess I can teach you it, depends how you do in training, now what shall we start with..". Jiraiya stood there for a moment, thinking about what to do. Naruto literally couldn't stand waiting for the old man to come up with what they are going to do for training, as he hated both waiting and not training alike. Of course Jiraiya knew he was doing it, it wouldn't be training if he didn't regularly annoy the boy now would it? Or at least that was how the old man saw it.

"Ok kid, I've got it. Follow me" Said Jiraiya, abrubtly disappearing in a puff of smoke, leaving Naruto frustrated. He knew where he was - only twenty meters away, thanks to his barrier, but he knew he would have to run his fastest to keep up.

So, Naruto turned and started to run toward Jiraiya, who had also started running through the forrest. The blond knew he would be extremely tired when he got home that evening, and he didn't look foreword to the next day either.

...

*Thud*

...

*Thud*

...

...

*Thud*

"Damn it!" Naruto shouted, falling to the ground, beaten once again.

"Gaki, concentrate, you will never get the bell at this rate!" Jiraiya said, holding the bell in his hand, standing over the cliff edge looking down.

Naruto got up, dusted himself off, and made five clones, which all seperated themselves at the bottom of the cliff face. Each one looked at each other, then back up at the old man. Their mission was to retrieve a bell from Jiraiya, who was standing at the top of the cliff. Naruto had to run up the cliff, avoid various weapons and earth-release jutsu and then fight Jiraiya at the top. The blond was not allowed to take his weights off though, and if Jiraiya caught him with his eyes closed (which meant Naruto was using his barrier incorrectly), he would use a earth-release jutsu to knock Naruto and his clones off the cliff. This was meant to help the blond's chakra control and help him understand how to fight tactically. Naruto had done a lot of falling in the two hours that had went by, getting very slightly better each attempt. The first hour was spent trying to climb the wall, whereas now he had gotten good at doing it, and five out of every seven attempts were successful.

Suddenly, in a blur of movement, Naruto bolted up the wall, closely followed by his clones. They all started dodging kunai and senbon which were being launched at them, still scaling the wall. Suddenly, an earth wall shot out from the side of the cliff, and started to fall down at the blond ninjas, who in turn avoided it with ease. Within a couple more moments, Naruto crouched and made a final leap for the top of the cliff, throwing shuriken as he did so to make Jiraiya jump back.

Jiraiya backflipped out of the way of the projectiles, and stood ten meters from the edge of the cliff. The blond suddenly flew up from the edge, and landed crouched where the old man had stood moments before. Then, one by one, his clones made it up though not as fast, and all lined up facing Jiraiya. They were in a stand off, the Sannin awaiting their attack patiantly and Naruto planning his next moves carefully. He was running out of chakra and needed to get the bell quickly.

The clones on the ends of the line suddenly darted up the wall and started throwing shuriken at Jiraiya, who simply made an earth wall effectively blocking all shuriken. Another clone raced up the cliff toward the earth wall, and threw three kunai which embedded themselves into the wall. What followed was a massive explosion with blue and red smoke, shrouding Jiraiya's view.

The Sannin stood there for a couple moments, trying to listen for movement, until he had to duck because of an incomming punch towards his face, and then had to flip backwards because of a low kick coming at him from the side. Once flipped backwards, he blocked a kick going for his side and grabbed the leg and tried to throw the owner towards the cliff edge. But, to his surprise, when he tried to let go at the end of his throw, the owner's hand slapped onto his upper arm and stuck there. It then pivoted around, spinning on it's hand (stuck there using chakra) and tried to grab the bell. However, the hand was grabbed by Jiraiya, who pulled it down and punched the owner of the hand in the stomach.

The clone dispelled, and cleared a little of the smoke around it's immediate area. Suddenly, kunai launched from all angles started coming from around, all aiming for Jiraiya who easily dodged the incomming weaponry, pinpointing the various areas the kunai came from. But, before he could start attacking, a kunai with an explosive tag exploded right next to him, forcing him to jump clear of it's blast. Jumping away to another area, he was forced to move again as another explosive tag exploded near him. The area he moved to again however, didn't explode straight away, and instead there was a couple moments of silence, before out of the disbanding smoke cloud, Naruto bolted out wielding a tantō, holding it ready to strike the Sannin.

Unfortunately, his strike was clumsy and easily avoided, and after swinging the weapon around a number of times, he got kicked in the stomach which stent him flying, dropping his weapon as a result.

Jiraiya looked at Naruto as he tried to recover from the throw, and saw a small smirk appear on his face. Suddenly, Jiraiya was forced to dodge a uppercut from where the tantō dropped. It was quick and sudden, causing Jiraiya to dodge the uppercut hastily. The original Naruto, after getting his footing, channelled all his chakra to his legs, and launched himself back at the Sannin below.

Before Jiraiya knew it, he he to block an incomming kunai from his side, another punch from the other, and dashed backwards instantly to avoid the many clones attacking him. Looking back, he noticed Naruto about a meter away, coming towards him incredibly fast. The blond reached out for the bell, to which Jiraiya tried to move away. Naruto's fingers brushed against the bell, touching it slightly before the old man turned and shot his elbow down on the blond's head.

Naruto then rolled across the ground before falling off the cliff and kept falling, unable to grab his footing. His remaining clones sprinted across to the edge to try and save him, and they each made an extra ten clones (As they weren't using the barrier) and made a clone rope. The rop consisted of each clone holding the next one's ankle, stretched out fully - reaching a distance of ten meters. Swinging downwards, the rope made contact with Naruto, who channelled the chakra into his hands to stick onto the clones, and hit the wall with the rope. Though the rop broke after hitting the wall, Naruto was able to gain his footing and stand up straight.

Jiraiya looked down at the boy stunned, slightly in disbelief that the blond actually touched the bells, whereas Naruto stood looking very tired, but smiling triumphantly.

"Well..." Jiraiya said. "I guess my skills are getting rusty".

Naruto smiled once more, and then unstuck from the wall, falling down to the ground due to fatigue. But, before he hit the ground, Jiraiya caught him.

"I guess the lesson is over" Jiraiya said, smiling at the kid.

Jiraiya put the boy on his back so he was sitting up, and started to walk through the forrest, back towards town.

xXx

Naruto's Appartment

*Beep Beep*

"Euuurrrgghh, uhh, uhh, Oh damn it! I'm late!" Naruto said, jumping out of bed and running into the bathroom. He turned on the shower, and was greeted by a blast of cold water. He used to flinch, but now he had accustomed to it he didn't even notice anymore. The person who owns his building turned off the hot water long ago, due to Naruto being a 'demon fox'.

After the blond awoke in his appartment in the morning after training on the cliff, Jiraiya took Naruto around town for the first part of the day to shop for supplies. Though, Jiraiya was appalled by the general reaction of the shop owners towards Naruto, but all served him anyway due to a very angry Sannin. They bought shuriken, kunai, pen, paper, scrolls - everything Naruto needed and more.

The later part of the day was filled with taijutsu practice, formation practice, wall walking and breaking genjutsu. This took until six in the evening, when the started on learning how to write different kinds of explosive tags (now that Naruto's handwriting was a little better. He could control the explosions, making them blast in different directions and different intensities. They finished with a warm down of running around the village four times in formation (using clones) and changing formation everytime Jiraiya shouted ended at midnight, due to the blond forgetting the formations, and as such Naruto was incredibly tired after it and fell straight to sleep when he got home.

As a result, Naruto slept through both alarms he had set and still felt tired.

Finishing showering, Naruto quickly put on his clothes, grabbed an apple from the table and carefully put on his headband. He then sprinted out of the window, and made his way for the academy.

Running through the village, the blond noticed the amounts of looks he got from every person along the street - looks of hatred and malice, and he hated it. Since meating Jiraiya and Konohamaru, the looks didn't hurt as much as they did, but they still left him feeling sour.

Each one stung a little bit, and everytime they did, he vowed again and again to make them recognise him. He would make them see him as a great shinobi who protects the village, not the 'demon fox'.

He quickened his pace, almost debating taking off his weights to do it. He didn't like recieving the looks, and he wanted to get to the academy, and he probably would have taken them off if he wasn't so tired. When he was that tired, he often made mistakes when molding chakra, which didn't matter too much for clones but for weights, it made the jutsu fail, and the weights unchanged.

Still, he was making good time, and wondered who would be on his team. His initial thought was to have Sakura on his team, due to his crush on her, but started to think about it. Jiraiya had always said think about things before you acted, and when he did, he touched one of the bells - an amazing achievement.

So, while he still had a crush on her, he thought about his insistance on pursuing her, and came to the conclusion that it wasn't a good idea to ask so frequently. Once or twice a week was ok, and usually didn't end in getting hit, but any more and he was in for a nice beating.

Although, this didn't sound too pleasing to the blond because he really wanted for her to like him, and couldn't see the logic in not asking so much. Clearly he still had to think about it, but he was simply too tired.

His pace was slowing as he thought, and he was almost at the academy. Thinking about it some more, he didn't really mind who was on his team.

'Anyone one but Sasuke-teme' Naruto thought as a frown crept onto his face. But he swept these thoughts away, and focussed on running faster, and started spinting in order to get to the academy. He would not be late today, not today of all days.

As the academy crept into view, Naruto let out a small cheer, and noticed that people were still going in. He didn't recognise anyone but one person, who was in his class and kind of creeped him out. The boy in question was the bug-wielding Shino Aburame, and the blond didn't really know the guy. He was quiet and said words the blond didn't understand, and also he had heard the guy kept bugs in his body. But, Naruto did like the fact it seemed the boy didn't give Naruto any abuse or try to talk down to him, and as such made him someone who he could be on a team with.

Little did Naruto know, he wouldn't be the only tired person in class that morning.

XxX

Aburame Clan District

*Beep Bee...*

Shino shut off the alarm, as he was awake long before it was set to go off. Team selections were today, and although no one could notice, he felt very tense about it. Nobody really noticed him at all.

The Aburame had never really had a friend outside his clan, as he felt awkward talking with others and didn't make very many friends as a result. He understood that teamwork was very important for a ninja, and this was the reason for his discomfort. He didn't think he could be a good teammate during times when they weren't on a mission, and feared that he would not make friends with his team and become an outcast - even more so than he already was. It helped to be an Aburame though, as he liked being alone, free to get on with his own stuff. He liked to examine bugs on his own and many people had called him 'creepy' for doing so, which Shino had tried to ignored. Though he had liked the idea of having a friend, or even someone who didn't find him totally creepy.

Rolling out of bed, Shino walking over to where his clothes were hanging, and started to dress himself.

He dressed clumsily, due to his lack of sleep, and fiddled with the buttons on his coat for a few minutes. Finally getting it on, the boy made his way downstairs.

His appearance was quite mysterious - the only thing you would be able to tell about Shino was that he had brown hair, and other than that he looked like any other Aburame. He always seemed to wear dark sunglasses and a sea-green jacket with it's collar upturned, so you couldn't tell what his face was like. Other than that, he was the tallest in his class and often over-explained things. It wasn't that he felt a need to do so, it was just natural.

In the kitchen, he looked around for a moment before finding some wild grass salad, and sat down to eat. He wasn't very hungry, but he loved this kind of salad, and couldn't pass an opportunity to eat it.

While eating, Shino went through a list in his head of how the teams would be sorted out - It was logical to assume the best to be put with the worst, as to even out the teams. This meant that, in the boy's mind, Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki would be put on a team together, and most likely not in his team. His feelings regarding the two were different. One was a very quiet prodigy whom of which Shino could never be friends with, due to his anti-social behaviour and somewhat 'superior' arrogance about him. The other was a loud, no talent and rude boy who for some reason, the Aburame believed to be somewhat bad in a way and was better avoided, though he had to confess he had never had a proper conversation with him and had no reason to feel this way.

He deduced that with his clan's special ability, he would be put on a tracking team with another clan member who excells at tracking - such as the Inuzuka clan or Hyuuga. Though, he tried not to think about this too much, as he was getting more and more anxious by the minute.

Finishing the salad, the boy went to check his gear, just in case their Jounins decided to test them on their respective skills. Luckily, besides checking his weapons pouch, Shino didn't have to do much as his main weapon lived inside him - bugs. He also went over and grabbed his lunch from the counter, made by his mother. Unfortunately, his parents both had clan duties to perform, today more than ever seeming as a number of colonies needed moving due to the bugs needing more room. Usually they would just build onto their respective hives and be done with it, but the hives at present were starting to spread into houses, thus they needed to be moved further away.

The main reason of people reffering to him as a creepy guy was because of being a host to a colony of bugs, which in turn fed of his chakra. Every Aburame at birth made a contract with the bugs and allowed them to live in their bodies. It took many, many hours of research and learning on how to tend for your bugs, the best methods of keeping the colony running, and even cross breeding the types of bugs to get special properties to your current bugs. This of course was extremely rare and takes a lot of effort, but Shino, when not training constantly researched bugs and had already tried many breeding combinations, though none were successful.

Ready to leave his house, he decided to start the long walk to the academy, taking care not to fall over on the way out of his house. He lived on the Aburame estate, an area two miles from the civilian houses as most people didn't like the amount of bugs which inhabbited the area. There were many bug colonies living around the estate, and the Aburames took great care in tending for, and protecting these. They also had a vast collection of rare plant life, which also attracted rare bugs - obviously something they would grow.

His house was standard for their family size, as the Aburame clan did not believe in owning massive properties or having more rooms than necessary. Most members were like Shino, in that they all believed in completing tasks logically and all seemed to be stoic and silent.

Walking out of his garden and through the estate he lived on, the brown haired boy could not help but question his lack of reason for disliking the boy, Naruto Uzumaki, as the idea of not liking someone and not knowing why slightly puzzled him. For as long as he had known, he had felt this way about the blond and couldn't find reason. Casting his mind back further, he remembered others instantly disliking him, and even their parents. Only just thinking about this now, Shino came to the conclusion he had been following the crowd back when he first started academy unconsciously.

This annoyed the Aburame, to an incredibly degree, and vowed to go and see what Naruto was really like for himself when he got the chance, although he admitted to himself that was easier said than donw. The two were completely different people, so conversing would be difficult and even more awkward than with people like himself.

Making it out of the clan property, Shino picked up the pace slightly, now not walking in a slow manner and briskly made his way to the academy, trying to formulate some plan to see if Naruto really was someone who would be best to avoid.

xXx

Ninja Academy - Outside Naruto's Classroom

Naruto slowly plodded his way down the hallway to the door to his classroom, feeling completely drained.

'I should of had something to eat before I left, I think I'm dying..' Naruto thought, clenching his stomach as it growled furiously. Not only was he tired, he was running on an empty stomach and was extremely unhappy about it. He now had no energy what so ever, and stood leaning against the wall for a couple moments, trying to ignore his stomach. Naruto knew that trying to ignore it was impossible, and decided to just suck it up and enter the classroom.

With major amounts of effort, Naruto thrust himself off the wall, and dragged himself toward the door, feet scraping on the ground as he went. He cursed Jiraiya for extending his training for so long, and decided he would have to get his own back with a prank after today.

Sliding the door open, the blond walked in and examined around the room.

Not everyone was here yet, looking as if it was half-filled, and Naruto could recognise five people. There was, starting from left of the room to the right, the Hyuuga girl, Hinata, who Naruto thought was very quiet and had trouble understanding her - every time he talked to her she blushed. In the middle row sat Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi, best friends and two people who didn't seem to hate Naruto, and had even ran away from Iruka-sensei with the blond, something he would never forget. On the table in front of them, Shino Aburame sat alone, and briefly looked up in Naruto's direction before his head bolted back down into his seat. The first word that came to the boy's head was 'creepy', but somehow Naruto found himself apologising for the comment mentally. This was common as he didn't have any friends, so he would always be open to making friends with anyone, no matter how creepy.

Finally, sitting on the far right of the room was Sasuke Uchiha - the 'teme' that always made academy life all the more annoying. He spent his whole time trying to look cool and ignore his many fans (every girl in class was a fan-girl to the Uchiha, except Hinata) and making Naruto look bad during sparring. Although the blond aspired to be like him, he still felt incredibly annoyed the the Uchiha for how he acts 'superior' to everyone.

On most days, Naruto would sit next to him and try to provoke him into a fight, hoping desperately to beat the raven-haired 'cool guy'. This hadn't happened yet, but Naruto had been training, and could now walk up walls. Could Sasuke-teme do that? He didn't think so, and secretely loved the fact he was getting extra training from Jiraiya.

Although, the blond had been told to keep this a secret by the Sannin, saying that it would be tactical for him to hide his training skills as 'surprise is a ninja's greatest weapon', or at least that is what he said. Naruto knew this really meant Jiraiya wanted to hide the fact he was training the boy so that when it came time to show everyone how strong he is, it will be such a vast improvement he will certainly be recognised. Naruto could not complain either way.

So, it was his sleepyness that made the blond sit at the far right, a couple tables back from the Uchiha, and sat down rather oafishly. This prompted a couple looks from other students in the room, who were completely surprised that Naruto hadn't gone and sit next to Sasuke as he always does. Even the Uchiha himself had to turn around and stare for a number of moments, before shrugging and went back to being lost in his own thoughts.

"Hey, Naruto, what's the deal with you being here? I thought you failed the exam" Shikamaru asked lazily, although he was quite interested. Even he thought that Naruto was an interesting character and was usually predictable.

Shikamaru Nara had shoulder length dark brown hair tied in a spiky ponytail, and wore a green lined mesh T-shirt under a short sleeved grey jacket with green edges, adorned on both the sleeves and the back with a circle with a line through it. His friend next to him, Choji Akimichi, was rather chubby, although he hated being called fat. He had spiky, brown hair, swirl marks on his cheeks and wore black shorts, a long white scarf, a short-sleeved, blue haori over a white shirt and bandaged legs/forearms.

The blond's head slowly rised from the table. "Huh? Ohhh, see the headband? Turns out I'm awesome after all" Naruto said, stomach growling when he finished.

Shikamaru simply turned his head back to Choji, deciding that that was good enough for him.

Naruto looked for a moment at others with questioning looks on their faces, and then decided to try and go back to lying on the desk. This proved futile. He was simply too hungry to sleep, and needed to take his mind off it. Thus, he pulled out a small scroll from his pouch on his leg, and opened it. Laying it flat on the desk, it appeared to be a storage scroll, bearing Naruto's name in the bottom right hand corner, looking like a signiture.

Channelling some chakra into it, a small puff of smoke engulfed his hand, attracting the attention of half the room. The smoke clearing, a number of books were found on his desk, along with a bottle of ink and brush. Picking up the top book, the blond resealed the remaining stuff with a hand sign automatically, as if he had done it a million times before.

Everyone was now looking at Naruto with curiousity, some being annoyed at him for some reason and others surprised. Though, Naruto didn't notice, and simply started reading the book in his hand trying desperately to ignore his stomach.

During his time with Jiraiya when he was practicing writing Fūinjutsu, the old man always helped him understand the theories and ideas behind the art, and now the blond could understand many things in the book, and even enjoyed thinking of the possibilities Fūinjutsu held. So, reading the book now was more enjoyable than previously, and quite soon the boy had become engrossed in it.

Most people whispered amoungst themselves about the behaviour, some saying how they didn't know 'it' could read, and others saying how it was unfair how someone like 'that could become a ninja. Shino most prominately stared a large amount at the boy, wondering what had happened to the loud, over-confident dead last that seemed to have changed him totally. Sasuke also looked and narrowed his eyes at Naruto, feeling rather suspiscious of this new behaviour, and almost went up to question it, but just returned back to his seat.

Many more people started to arrive, including one Inuzuka who started shouting at Naruto for not being allowed there because he was not a ninja and how it was weird for someone like the blond to read, especially of their own free will. This was met with Naruto looking up from his book, pointing to his forehead protector, and then going back to reading. This left Kiba, the Inuzuka, rather annoyed and sat down in a huff.

After this, Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka both stormed in at the same time, and both equally started shouting about who won on their way to school. The blond glanced up from his book to watch the scene, and debated asking Sakura on a date like always, but realised that would involve getting up and he simply couldn't be asked. He had gotten to an interesting part in the book about explosive tags and varients on them, and so far explosive tags were the one thing practiced more than anything - for obvious reason.

Sakura had bright pink hair, large green eyes, and fair skin, all of which Naruto loved. She wore wore a red dress with white circular designs, with short sleeves, with a zipper, tight dark green shorts. Ino had long, blonde hair, which was in a high-ponytail with bangs covering the right side of her face. She wore a short purple vest like blouse with a raised collar, a purple apron skirt that is cut off on the sides and bandages on her stomach and legs, accompanied by purple and white elbow warmers.

The two girls made their way across the room, until Sakura spotted a certain Uchiha sitting over on his own. Suddenly, she darted off ahead of Ino towards him, whereas Ino saw that she would be able to catch up, and walked to where she usually sits.

"Good Morning Sasuke-kun! Is this seat taken?" Sakura said in a high, sweet voice.

Sasuke replied with a quiet 'Hn', which the pinkette assumed meant yes. She was about to sit down, until she noticed Naruto, sitting away from his usual position next to Sasuke, reading! This was a shock to her, such a shock in fact she decided to walk over to him and question him. Yes she wanted to spend time with the Uchiha, but her attempts to do so were usually ruined by the annoying Naruto, and so she was suspiscious of him being all the way at the back of the class.

"Naruto! What are you doing?" Sakura asked in a rude manner, tapping her foot impatiantly.

Naruto looked up from his book, and then suddenly put it in as he realised who had asked. 'She even walked away from Sasuke to ask me' Naruto thought as he stared into the pair of green orbs that gazed at him.

"Hi, Sakura-chan! I'm just reading, do you want to sit next to me?" Naruto asked, smiling.

Sakura frowned. "As if, and let me see what you are reading" As she said this, she snatched the book from the blond, who in turn lowered his head in sadness from the rejection. The girl scanned the cover of the book, and laughed.

"Naruto, you know this is a book about the art of sealing, one of the most complicated things known to the ninja world? Why are you reading it?" Sakura question, looking at the boy with a mocking look.

Naruto looked up, feeling slightly affended. "I find it really interesting, I mean, there is a lot someone could do with Fūinjutsu" The blond said, turning his attention to the door. "Sakura-chan..". Naruto was cut off by the pinkette.

"No Naruto, I don't want to go on a date with you" Sakura said, sounding exhasperated.

Naruto frowned. "I actually was going to ask if I could have my book back, Iruka-sensei is coming down the hall and will be here in a minute".

Sakura blushed, and handed back the book, feeling rather embarrassed. She didn't expect the boy to act like that, and started to feel angry with him after a couple moments. "How do you know Iruka-sensei is coming anyway?" She questioned.

Naruto pulled out his scroll again, openning it. "It doesn't matter.." Naruto said, channelling chakra into the scroll, and placing the book onto the released pile of books. "Sakura-chan, do you want to eat lunch with me today? It won't be a date or anything, but..". Naruto said, thinking that if he changed his method of asking, he might be more successful, just like in the tree-climbing exercise.

Sakura got even angrier, and smacked Naruto in the head. "Baka! I'm going to eat lunch with Sasuke-kun" Said the girl, who then walked down and sat in her seat. The blond was left feeling depressed, and just resealed the scroll.

'Maybe next time' Naruto told himself.

Iruka walked into the classroom a few moments later, and the class became quiet.

"Good Morning Class" Iruka started. "From this day foreward, you are no longer mere students of ninjutsu, but full-fledged shinobi".

XxX

A/N

Hello! Sorry it took like three weeks for this one, my next updates shouldn't take so long.

I hope this was ok, although I think it was worse than the first chapter. It's rather messy in it's structure and included too much fighting. Also, I did kind of make the tree-climbing exercise come quickly for Naruto, mainly because I wanted to get it out the way with early on. He hasn't mastered it yet, but still pretty good at it.

The reason for the larger amount of action in the chapter was due to me wanting everyone to know Naruto is initially stronger than he was in the manga, and I don't plan on putting much action after chapter three.

He won't keep up this level of progress though, seeming as this is the stuff he was supposed to know - the basics. He should learn it relatively fast anyway, anything of a higher level will take much longer.

I included a little bit of an insight to Shino's character, and am hoping to make the bond between him and Naruto strong. I know it seems that Sakura is being a little more mean than usual, but she won't remain like that, don't worry people.

On top of that, Sasuke isn't going to stay a 'brooding, emo prodigy with power issues', I simply wanted there to be a bigger contrast between his character now and what it will become. So yeah! That's kind of it, oh and Naruto was using a Tanto thing in this one, it's a very common weapon used by many, many people in the Konoha, so I just thought he should at least have some experience using it, maybe use it for a jutsu. But anyway, I hope this was okish, leave comments, send me messages for improvements and stuff, follow if you like!

See ya, Have a nice day/night c:


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Good Morning Class" Iruka started. "From this day foreword, you are no longer mere students of ninjutsu, but full-fledged shinobi".

Naruto placed the scroll in his pocket, sat up and stared at Iruka.

"But, among the ranks of the Shinobi, you are mere novices, lowest of the low. Your greatest challenges all lie ahead." Iruka said, pausing and looking around the room at the many students in his class.

He stared at one in particular, who was sitting on his own at the back of the class. The man was a little confused at this, but decided to ignore it and go on with his speech anyway.

"The next step is the assignments of official duties to you all of behalf of our village. We will begin by dividing you into three-man cells. Each of which will be mentored by a Jonin, a more senior ninja..." Iruka said, pausing once again, for effect. The man loved to give speeches and didn't like ending them in a hurry. "... Who will guide and coach you as you become familiar with your various assignments.".

Most people looked around at their friends, nodding and smiling, and other people looked down in fear that they might get put with someone they don't like. Naruto stared at Sakura for a moment, wishing for nothing more than for her to be on his team. But, he remembered getting turned down yet again by her, how she always wanted 'Sasuke-kun' and pretty much hated the blond. 'If I get put on Sakura's team, I will be able to show her the real me, and prove to her that I am just as good a ninja as the teme over there' Naruto thought, looking over at Sasuke.

The blond wished with every fibre of his being right there and then that he would not be on the Uchiha's team, and that he would be with Sakura. Though, his thoughts were interrupted by Iruka, who decided he had paused for long enough.

"I gave my recommendations to the Hokage, and he sorted through them and made sure that each team's abilities would be equal and every person would benefit from being on the team". Iruka frowned slightly when he said this. Normally, he would put the teams together with the Hokage personally, due to him knowing each individuals strengths and weaknesses. This would ensure teams of equal strength and people getting put with people they already got along with, increasing both teamwork during missions and productivity during training; friends encourage other friends.

This year, however, the Hokage insisted on changing up two of the teams himself after Iruka had set them, and made it clear that he wants these ninja together. The man had thought putting Naruto and Sasuke together would have been a good idea, seeming as the blond aspires to be like the Uchiha. What baffled Iruka more was that instead of just moving the blond to another team, leaving Kakashi to train Sasuke, the only one who can train Sasuke in using the Sharingan, the Hokage moved Sasuke to another group and left Naruto in team seven.

The teacher pushed these thoughts to the side, and started to read out the new teams.

"... Team 7, Sakura Haruno, Shino Aburame, and Naruto Uzumaki" Iruka said, as Sakura leaped up out of her seat.

"Whaaaat?" Sakura shouted, only to have Iruka wave a dismissing hand at her. She wanted to complain more, to try and get her moved, but she knew it would be pointless. So, Sakura sunk down into her seat and frowned, cursing her bad luck. 'Why do I have to be on a team with Naruto!?' She questioned.

Thinking this, she looked back at the blond, who smiled back at her with a warm, sincere smile. She frowned even more and clenched her fists. 'Is he trying to make me mad? Mocking me like that...' The girl thought. '...And I get put with the creepy bug guy'.

Shino just sat with astonishment at what he just heard. Not only did he get put away from the two people which he thought he would be placed with, he was put with Naruto Uzumaki, the very person he wanted to try and understand. He couldn't find the logic in it though, and it irked him. It seemed that everything involving the blond was illogical or it didn't add up in some way.

Today, Naruto had not made a big entrance, sat away from Sasuke, opened a scroll and started to read a book. Everything here didn't make sense, and Shino was determined to know why.

Naruto, on the other hand, couldn't believe his luck. He got put with Sakura and not with Sasuke, and as such he was as happy as he could ever be. Though, he didn't jump up from his seat and shout about it - he was too tired. But, he still smiled like he never had before, and felt really happy. At least he did until Sakura frowned at him.

For some reason, that frown she gave Naruto pierced right through him. Her eyes had _that_ look in them; the same look he got from everyone in the village, the same look he hated, and vowed to change. But, when they came from somebody like Sakura - a fellow classmate who he always desperately tries to make happy daily, he just felt it twice as much as he should.

Deciding it best not to dwell on the situation regarding Sakura, Naruto looked at his other teammate - Shino. The blond was happy with this choice, seeming as it wasn't Sasuke, but was also a little annoying because Naruto wasn't sure if he could get along with the bug-wielder. He always tried to make friends by being happy and open towards everyone, but the Aburame was not this way.

Shino was quiet and kept his thoughts to himself, the exact opposite to Naruto. So, forming a relationship would be difficult, hence the blond's confused feelings. Though, this was all shadowed by the fact that Naruto didn't mind who was on his team, as long as he got a chance to prove himself. No matter what team, no matter who he was with, he would show everyone in the village that he would be Hokage and deserved respect.

"... Ok, everyone,. I'll be introducing your senior ninjutsu instructors this afternoon." Iruka smiled, and looked around at all the students in his class. "Until then, you're dismissed!".

All the ninja-to-be in the classroom got up, and started to leave for lunch, talking about their new teams and how great they are going to be as ninja. Out of everyone that had left, only three students remained in the class - Naruto, Shino and Sakura.

Naruto walked over to Sakura, seeing that Shino was already making his way towards her from his seat.

"Hi, uhh, Shino" Naruto said. "Do you want to join me for some lunch?". The blond asked this in a quiet, shy voice of which Shino was unfamiliar with. The blond was feeling very nervous at this point, although he tried his best to hide it. Making friends was difficult and he always seemed to have a hard time with it, so he was trying to make sure not to mess it up with his team.

"I think that would be acceptable seeming as we are now going to be working together" Shino said after a few moments of thinking.

Smiling, Naruto turned to Sakura. "How about it, Sakura-chan? Join us for lunch?".

Sakura's head rose from the desk, and she stared at the blond with annoyance on her face.

"I've got better things to do Naruto than to have lunch with you, no offence Shino" Sakura said, realising that her other teammate was there as well. "I'm sure you are great, and I'll probably be hanging out with you in the future, but I've got plans".

As she said this, the girl got up and left the classroom, leaving a rather deflated Naruto and an impassive Shino.

"I always get rejected..." Naruto said to himself. He had a sad look on his face, one of loneliness and despair, and the look in his eye shown great pain and suffering. But, this only lasted for a moment, not even a second, and the blond's smile returned. Shino's eyebrow half-raised at seeing this.

"Sorry about that, anyway, let's go get some lunch!" The blond said, starting to walk out of the classroom. Shino followed, but came to a stop a couple seconds later, as Naruto turned around.

The blond scratched the back of his head. "Hey Shino, you want to go get some ramen, I might of forgotten my lunch" Said Naruto with an embarrassed look on his face.

Shino looked blankly at the boy. "But, I don't have any money".

Naruto chuckled. "Don't worry, Gama-chan will cover it".

XxX

Ramen Ichiraku

'How can one person eat so much ramen?' Shino thought, staring at the blond as he ate his own bowl. Upon leaving the academy, the two walked into town to go to Naruto's favourite ramen shop where the blond had already decided they were going. Shino couldn't help but notice the many people, ninja and civilians alike, who stared at Naruto with hate in their eyes. Also, the Aburame noted that the look Naruto was giving when receiving the looks was one of pain and suffering, not unlike the one he had seen back at school, and could tell it meant that this was an everyday occurrence.

But, the two people who ran this shop were rather friendly towards Naruto, and they served him ramen free of charge when they realised he had brought a teammate there. Shino couldn't help but feel even more curious as he spent more time with Naruto.

Analysing everything he had seen/discovered/known about the blond, Shino figured that because everyone they had come across in the village glared at Naruto, whatever has made them like this was pretty big; it must have affected everyone. Not only that, whatever this thing was, it must of been a secret for only older generations to know. That would explain why Shino knows nothing about what Naruto had done.

But, whatever it was, Naruto was hardly capable of performing it. Such a task would require a level of skill far beyond what a genin is capable of, let alone the dead-last. Then one had to consider the aforementioned dead-last being an orphan with no upbringing, and his constant attention grabbing behaviour.

The whole thing confused Shino, and left him feeling rather awkward.

Naruto, on the other hand, was enjoying himself. True, his friend was quiet and didn't talk as much as himself, but he went out of his way to eat with him and made some conversation. On top of that, he hadn't made any mean or hurtful comment the whole time. Naruto couldn't help but smile to himself about how easy it was getting someone not to hate him.

"So, Shino... *Slurp* ...What's with all the bugs?" Naruto asked.

Shino looked down at his bowl of ramen. "Naruto, I'm from the Aburame clan". After a few moments of Naruto staring at the boy blankly, Shino started speaking again. "In my clan, all children have insect colonies placed inside them, the kikaichu and they live on my chakra. In return, I can use them as weapons".

Naruto looked at a bug crawl out of Shino's clothing, and thought about being in his position. The blond didn't like the idea of having loads of bugs living inside him all the time, but then again, he had to consider Shino's own opinion on the matter.

"Well, do you like bugs?" The blond asked.

"It would be correct to say that I like bugs. In my spare time, I study them and I have been brought up to know how to care for them and how to use them. My whole life is based around them, and I rather like the way a hive works" Shino said, almost enthusiastically.

Naruto had to admit he got annoyed at bugs whenever they shown up for no real reason and had never payed attention to them at all - he didn't know anything about them.

"Well, we are going to be on the same team, right?" Naruto asked, getting a nod from Shino. "How about after meeting our Jonin today, you show me everything worth knowing about your bugs! Not only will it make us work better together, I should get to know you better as well.".

Shino looked at Naruto in surprise, as everyone in the past, once they heard about him having bugs in his body, they became awkward around him and somewhat distant. But this boy, not only does he want to know more about it, he asked for Shino to show him everything he knows about his insects and did so with a look of anticipation on his face. Naruto was now smiling at him, and it made the Aburame frown.

Naruto's smile he had changed into an expression of confusion when Shino frowned.

"Is something wrong, Shino?" Naruto asked.

Shino fidgeted a bit. "Naruto, something has been bothering me about you..." Shino stopped for a couple moments, trying to think of the right words. It wasn't normal for him to be like this; unable to speak his mind. "It's just, I can't find any logical reason why everyone in the village hates you, and I want to know why?".

Naruto's look of confusion faded into a sad expression full of pain. It was only slightly visible to Shino, as if anyone were to walk by, it would look like Naruto had an emotionless face. But, when looking up close, the suffering could clearly be seen in his eyes.

"Shino..." Naruto started, remembering things from his past. 'In other words, you are the Nine-Tailed Fox spirit that destroyed the village!'. That one line from Muzuki had repeated over and over again in the boy's head, and still made him feel a massive amount of anger. He clenched his fists, clenched them tightly. He remembered how everyone had treated him, how no one ever helped him. Blood dripped from his closed palm. Then, he remembered Jiraiya, and how they talked for two hours, how he trained him and liked him, and his fists unclenched. He supressed his anger, and forced it within himself.

"..I... I can't say right now" Naruto said, barely able to speak. "I'll tell you soon though.".

Naruto paused for a moment, and looked into his ramen. He started to smile. "Anyway, I will show you what I can do later as well!" Naruto said, looking at the impassive face of the Aburame, and wiped his hand on the napkin under his bowl.

Shino didn't say anything for a couple moments, trying to work out what Naruto was hiding from him, but gave up.

"Ok, I will show you everything I know about kikaichu... why? Because I want to work well with you. But, I don't think you need to show me what you can do, I've seen enough from the academy" Shino said, remembering how Naruto barely passed the exam.

Naruto looked a little annoyed for a moment, but then thought at how much he had changed since a week ago.

"I guess you could say, I have been doing some training over the week we had off" Naruto said, looking at his palm.

Shino thought it best not to be mean to his teammate and let him believe he had improved a great deal. Naruto's best trait was his determination, and it would ruin him as a person if the Aburame tried to crush this.

"It stands to reason that you might of learned a new technique in the week that would benefit me to know" Shino said, and then looked at his ramen. "It may also be a good idea as to invite Sakura Haruno".

Naruto smiled again, this time greater at the name of that girl, and thought about how great it would be for her to spend time with him. But, Naruto also thought about how every time she rejected him when he asked to make plans, and his mood dropped slightly.

"That would be a good idea, but she says no to every invitation I have ever given her.." Naruto said, and started to eat more of his half-empty bowl of ramen.

Shino remembered how the pinkette reacted to Naruto asking her to join them in eating lunch. "Naruto, I could ask her to join us if you like".

The blond looked up while wolfing down some noodles.

"That's great ...*Slurp*... she will definitely come then ...*Slurp*... Thanks Shino". Naruto said in between eating ramen.

Shino nodded, and the two started to talk about their hobbies and interests until it was time to go.

xXx

Ninja Academy Classroom

"Why do we get the one Jonin that doesn't turn up on time?" Naruto exclaimed, sitting in the classroom with Shino and Sakura, who had been waiting for nearly two hours for their instructor to show up, whereas everyone else's Jonin instructor turned up and left with each team. Even Shino was getting annoyed.

Sakura was sitting on the desk, book in hand, and chuckling. She then put the book down, and looked at Naruto.

"Honestly Naruto, I can't even understand half the stuff in there, so why did _you_ try and read it?" Sakura said, who was still rather annoyed about the fact that the blond was trying to be all cool and learn some new skills. Naruto couldn't even do the basic stuff from the academy, let alone learn how to do an advanced ninja art that only a select few of ninjas tried to do. "Besides, aren't you more the 'attack head on' type rather than the 'work behind the scenes' kind of guy?".

Naruto looked at Sakura, feeling a little annoyed.

"I've read it, it took me a couple times to understand some of the stuff in there, but it's actually really interesting. It will be amazing to be able to use a sealing technique in the middle of battle, right? Nobody will be expecting it" Naruto said, looking at the ceiling with his hands behind his head. "And I can be stealthy when I want to be".

Shino could already see an argument was about to happen before Sakura had a chance to reply.

"Sakura, I think it's an unfair judgement to say that Naruto will have no luck with Fūinjutsu, as we don't know how easily it comes to him" Shino said, getting Naruto to turn around and smile at him.

"What? Are you forgetting that he was the dead-last of our class? He couldn't master Fūinjutsu even if he could live for one thousand years!" Sakura said, laughing.

Naruto clenched his fists, due to the fact that he hated people saying he couldn't do something, especially when he already most of the basic elements of it.

"Fine then, want to make a bet Sakura-chan?" Naruto said. "If I can perform a half-decent Fūinjutsu technique, you have to go on a date with me".

"A date with you?!" Sakura shouted, barely able to contain herself from laughing, but then remembered that she could benefit from it. "Well, what do I get if I win?" The girl asked, smirking at the thought of Naruto performing a half-decent jutsu, let alone learning Fūinjutsu.

Naruto thought for a moment. "If you win, I won't ask you out ever again" Said Naruto determinedly.

Sakura wanted to jump up and down with joy. No longer would she be annoyed by Naruto, asking her on dates. No longer will she have to constantly put up with the large amounts of questions. In addition to this, there was no way Naruto could perform anything that could win the bet, even with six months worth of training. It was too good an opportunity to miss.

"You have a deal Naruto, no going back now" Said Sakura, holding her hand out. 'No more being asked out by Naruto, Cha!' Inner-Sakura screemed.

Naruto reached for it. "I hope you are prepared to go on a date with me. Give me two weeks, and I'll have a great Fūinjutsu technique ready for you, Dattebayo!" Shouted the boy, confident as ever, shaking the girl's hand.

Just as they finished shaking hands and Naruto sat back down next to Shino, the classroom door opened.

Standing in the entrance to the room was a silver-haired man with his left eye covered, wearing standard Konoha Shinobi uniform. He looked at each genin for a moment, and then spoke.

"My first impressions of you all..." Kakashi waited for a few moments. "... you guys are boring".

Naruto and Sakura's mouths dropped to the floor, while Shino merely raised an eye brow.

"Meet me on the roof now" Said the man as he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Naruto sighed, remembering his other encounters with that jutsu.

"I hate Shunshin..." Naruto said, as he made his way to the top of the building, followed by Shino, and then Sakura.

...

Kakashi stared at the three genin in front of him, all sitting down and ready to listen to what he had to say.

The Jonin was still rather annoyed about not getting the Uchiha on his team, as he likened himself to him and wanted to lead the boy away from arrogance. Naruto was an interesting one though, and Kakashi noted that if this team passed, he probably could make a half-decent ninja out of him, judging from his heritage. The other two were just standard ninja, and for the most part he didn't need to worry about teaching the Aburame new techniques as he was learning them from his clan. The girl however would need guidance, but not much one on one help, judging by her Academy grades.

"Now, I'd like you all to tell us a little about yourselves" Kakashi said, looking at the three in front of him.

Naruto looked at Shino and Sakura, confused. "Like what?" The blond asked.

"... You know, the usual. Your favourite things... What you hate most" The man explained. "Dreams, ambitions, hobbies, things like that".

"Uhhh, help us out here, coach" Naruto said.

"Yeah" Started Sakura. "You are a complete stranger to us, and you are supposed to be our new sensei".

Kakashi smiled, or at least what everyone guessed was a smile, as you couldn't really be sure what was going on under his mask.

"Me? Well, my name is Kakashi Hatake, I'm the kind of person who doesn't feel like talking about his likes and dislikes. My dreams for the future are none of your business... But anyway, I have lots of hobbies..." Kakashi said, chuckling on the inside. He loved to play that card, as it always made the genin mad.

Each genin looked at each other.

"All we found out was his name.." Naruto said.

"It seems our 'leader' didn't tell us a lot about his personal life... why? He doesn't trust us" Shino said, staring at Kakashi.

The man shook his head.

"Ok, time for you guys, blondie, your up" Kakashi said, pointing at Naruto.

Naruto smiled, and stood up.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki! I like instant cup ramen!" Said the blond, adjusting his headband. "But what I like even more is hanging out with people who respect me, like Ero-Sennin. What I hate is not being allowed to eat ramen because 'it's not good for me', what the hell does that even mean? Ramen is the best!" Naruto frowned, looking at the floor, shaking his head.

"Anyway, my dream is to one day be a better shinobi than the old man! And then all the villagers will have to acknowledge my existence at last!" Naruto said, mustering all the energy he had to deliver the last bit of his speech. After, he sat back down and smiled at the thought of accomplishing his dream, looking rather content. Shino stared at him with curiosity, trying to still figure out the riddle that was Naruto, whereas Sakura just shook her head in a disapproving manner. Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

'Ero-Sennin... He couldn't mean master Jiraiya, could he?' Kakashi thought as he pointed at Shino. "Ok, bug boy, your turn".

Shino cleared his throat, but stayed in his seat.

"My name is Shino Aburame, and my main interest is in Entomology. I like eating winter watermelon and fighting strong people. I dislike those who kill bugs on sight and people who are mean to those for an invalid reason..." Shino briefly looked at Naruto out of the corner of his eye, before looking at Kakashi, who noticed this. "My dream is to one day become a great shinobi and an even better Entomologist".

As Shino finished, the blond patted him on the shoulder, of which the Aburame thought of as a great gesture of friendship. The Jonin could only congratulate the two of them for finding friends in one another before he had tested them. But, there was still the issue of the other team member; Kakashi could already guess what category she fell under.

"Thank you, alright, pinky, time to go" Said Kakashi.

Sakura fiddled with the hem of her dress for a second, before flicking her hair outwards. She then cleared her throat like Shino, and stood up.

"My name is Sakura Haruno, and I like... a certain someone..." The girl started giggling a little, before regaining her composure. "My hobbies include... hanging out with Sasuke-kun..." She burst out giggling once more, but this time for longer. "I hate Naruto" Sakura said, glaring at the blond.

Upon hearing this, Naruto turned and looked at the girl to see if she was joking, but when her look was serious, he slumped down and looked at the floor.

"And my dreams for the future..." She burst out laughing once more, getting Kakashi to sigh. Lucky him, he got an Uchiha fan-girl on his team.

"Enough" Kakashi said, getting up from the railings he was sat on. "I think we know each other a little better now, so I am happy to announce that we will begin our first mission as a team".

"Our first real shinobi mission?! What will our duties be, sir?" Naruto said, saluting as he did so.

Kakashi chuckled. "It's a mission that only involves the members of this cell..." The man started. "The mission is a survival exercise".

All three genin were confused. Naruto stared at the man in confusion, while Shino raised an eyebrow.

"Survival exercises? But we did those in the academy" Sakura said, just as confused as the other two.

"This is... well I guess calling it a practice wouldn't be correct.. think of this as a test" Kakashi chuckled again fiendishly.

Naruto stood up. "A test? What? Why are we taking a test?".

"Of the twenty-seven members of your graduating class, only nine will actually be accepted as junior-level shinobi. The other eighteen must go back for more training. The test we were about to perform has a sixty-six percent rate of failure" The man said, as Naruto and Sakura both sunk back down into their seats.

"No chickening out now guys, you wanted to become Shinobi". Kakashi pulled out three slips of paper.

"But, That sucks! We already went through our graduation test?!" Naruto exclaimed, not wanting have to go back to the academy for another year.

"The academy test was just to filter out the really hopeless cases, anyway, we are getting off topic. We will meet tomorrow in Training area three so that we may begin the test. I will be evaluating each of your skills and weaknesses - bring all of your ninja tools and weapons" Kakashi stated, handing each a piece of paper. "The details are here, so see you tomorrow".

Kakashi disapeared in a puff of smoke, leaving the three genin sitting alone on the roof. They all started to read through the slips of paper handed to them. After a couple moments, Naruto started chuckling.

"What are you laughing at Naruto? This isn't very funny..." Sakura said, rolling her eyes at the blond.

Naruto kept chuckling. "It's just, where we have to go for this test, I guess you could say it will be familiar to me" The blond said, thanking kami for his good fortune.

Sakura frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?".

"Oh, nothing, don't worry about it" Naruto said, before turning to Shino. "Shall we get going?"

Shino nodded, and walked over to Sakura.

"Sakura, I believe it would be a good idea to join me in showing Naruto what we can do and vice versa" Shino said.

Sakura looked at the both of them, and almost said yes. Almost.

"Sounds great, but Naruto is annoying and I think I know what you guys can do pretty well. You are an Aburame, right? You use the 'Kikaichu' insect for most of your techniques, and Naruto... Well he is just hopeless. So I'll see you guys tomorrow then" Sakura said, and walked away.

Naruto frowned once more, feeling annoyed. 'How many times does she need to say stuff like that? I get it, she thinks I'm useless, no need to keep repeating it' Naruto thought, as Shino turned back towards him.

"Naruto, lets get going, lead the way" Shino said, getting Naruto up from his seat.

The blond smiled and nodded, before walking over to the edge of the building and jumping off. Shino quickly ran to the edge and looked over, trying to see if Naruto was hurt. But, to his surprise, he saw that Naruto was standing on the side of the building.

"Come on Shino, race you there" Naruto said, before darting across the side of the building and jumping, eventually landing on the next building's roof. Shino sighed, and ran off as well, although he just launched himself off the top of the building, not being able to stick to the side of the wall.

'How curious, what has Naruto learnt other than this in the past week?' Shino thought as he struggled to keep up with Naruto.

XxX

Third Training Ground

"Here we are! Hey Shino, are you ok?" Naruto asked, seeing that the Aburame was out of breath and struggling to recover.

Shino nodded and stood up straight, though still clearly tired.

"Naruto, why did we come here now? This is where we have to be tomorrow at noon" Shino asked, taking gasps of air between every four words.

"Well, this is where I have been training for the past week with Ero-Sennin. So I guess this place will be familiar to me" Naruto said, scratching the back of his head.

Shino nodded, but still had his eyebrow raised. "Who is this 'Ero-Sennin? You mentioned him during our introductions to Kakashi-sensei".

Naruto stopped scratching the back of his head and started to smile.

"Oh yeah! I haven't told you about him, he is the person who has been teaching me this past week" Naruto said, and started to go back over the week in his head, smiling more and more by the second.

"I see" Shino said, sceptical about this man who had been teaching his teammate. "Does he go by any other name?".

"His name? Jiragi? Jiriyon? Jiraiya? yeah, Jiraiya, that's the perverts name!" Naruto said, looking triumphant.

"Jiraiya... One of the three legendary Sannin?" Shino said in disbelief. Jiraiya didn't even live in the Konoha, let alone be there to train the boy for a week. It just added more complications to the riddle in Shino's head. If it was Jiraiya, then why? How did Naruto convince him, seeming as everyone basically hates him.

"Yeah, that's the guy, so you have heard of him. Don't tell him that though, I don't think he needs an ego boost" Naruto said, rolling his eyes at his memories.

Shino just stood in silence for a moment, thinking, though his breathing hadn't returned to normal.

"So, anyway Shino, how about I show you some of the things I've learnt since the academy" Naruto said, stretching out his arms and legs.

The Aburame nodded, and sat down in the spot he was standing in. He was more than curious to learn what the blond had been taught to not only pass the exam, but to change him as a person. Even if the change was subtle, it was there and Shino could see it.

Naruto took a deep breath, and started to mould some chakra.

"Shino, I think I should show you the technique I learned first..." Naruto said, forming a hand seal. "Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!".

In an instant, fifty Naruto-clones appeared in a puff of smoke, standing all over the field. Shino's eyes widened at the sight, but nearly fell over when he realised that they were actually there - flesh and blood copies of the blond, not just an image.

"N..n..Naruto, Where did you learn this?" The Aburame asked, feeling rather astonished.

Naruto dispelled most of the clones, leaving two who stood next to him.

"Well, it's a long story" The blond said, scratching the back of his head. "But, you know Mizuki? He tricked me into stealing the scroll of seals, and told me if I learnt one technique from it I would pass the graduation test and become a ninja..." Naruto chuckled a little, but he frowned and looked down in a solemn manner. "I guess he was right in a way".

Shino didn't say anything and just sat in his spot, staring at Naruto, his mind trying to comprehend everything. Not only had he just learnt that Mizuki, one of his academy teachers, was actually a traitor and tried to steal the scroll of seals, he learnt that Naruto had assisted in the theft and learnt a forbidden technique from it. But it didn't add up - no genin should be able to master such a technique in so short a time.

Shino thought for a few more moments, before talking again.

"This certainly is.. interesting. But I have two questions" Shino said, clearing his throat as Naruto looked up from the spot he was staring at. "How did you learn the technique, and what else have you learnt since the academy?".

Naruto thought for a moment, until realising he asked Jiraiya the same question.

"It turns out, I have unnaturally high chakra reserves, and the only reason the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu is forbidden is because it requires so much chakra to perform it. But, I guess having lots of chakra gives me terrible control" Naruto said, walking over to the boy with his clones by his side. "I don't know any more offensive techniques though, but they are still awesome!".

Shino nodded a couple times before getting up and examining one of the clones. He flinched when he put his hand out to touch one and it didn't go through it. It was remarkably real, an exact copy and he could easily think it was the original if he didn't know better.

"I've also been using training weights to increase my speed and strength" Naruto said, flicking through a number of hand seals.

Suddenly, black swirls appeared on his hands and spun violently and spread up towards his forearms, not stopping until they covered his whole forearm in black markings. Shino stood shocked again, wondering what kind of weights they were.

"It looks cool, right? Ero-Sennin put these on me, and they work by instead of weighing down specific areas on my body, they weigh down the whole of me equally, making them much more effective" Said the blond, running off at a nearly unreadable speed to Shino toward the end of the training field, and coming back.

"I see..." Shino said in a flustered tone. He didn't know how to react to all of this new information on the boy.

Naruto chuckled and resealed his weights.

"I only have one more jutsu to show you, it's called Kekkai: Eien no Hōjin. Watch..." Naruto said, flicking through hand seals again and clapping his hands.

Suddenly a grey sphere spread out from the blond, and expanded quickly to the size of the field, before vanishing. Shino raised an eyebrow.

"It's a barrier technique, and it allows me to detect anything that is going on within the barrier. But, it's hard to use it during a fight because I have to focus on two things at once - it's really annoying" Naruto said, smiling. "It was easy to learn because of my massive reserves, but I don't have perfect control over it yet and if I use too many clones, the barrier fails and leaves me drained of chakra".

Shino didn't know how to react. This Naruto was not the dead last of his class he knew, the one that couldn't perform the simple clone jutsu or even throw a kunai straight. This Naruto could perform several jutsu, offensive and defensive which even Sasuke Uchiha wouldn't be able to perform without nearly draining all his chakra resources in one go. He was about as fast as the Uchiha and even uses advanced weights which will only help him get faster; this Naruto was on a completely new level.

"I've been working on my Taijutsu as well, but apparently it's still not good enough, and my Genjutsu skills are pretty much non-existent. I'm still a beginner at Fūinjutsu, but I will get better!" Naruto said, fire in his eyes, looking at Shino who was still trying to come to terms with his new teammate.

After a few moments of silence, Naruto grew uncomfortable.

"So, uhh, Shino... What can you do?" Naruto asked, staring into the emotionless face of the shaded Aburame.

Shino coughed, and looked at the blond. "As you know, I wield the Kikaichu, so most of my techniques use them" Shino said, bugs coming out of his sleeves. "I can use my insects in various ways, the most common being to drain the targets chakra with my bugs, leaving them exhausted".

Naruto looked at the bugs coming out of the Aburame, but didn't feel creeped out as he thought he would. In fact, there was a slight flicker of jealously deep within the boy who wanted to have clan abilities - secret moves only his clan could learn.

"I would show you my other moves, but I need a target.." Shino started. "Could I use one of your clones?".

The blond, not really thinking about it, pointed at one of his clones, who proceeded to run over to the other side of Shino. The Aburame aimed his hands at the sacrificial clone, who gulped, and closed his eyes.

"One of the easiest ways to get my bugs onto my target without them noticing is to send them from various angles in small groups, like so..." Shino pointed at the clone, who just stared at the original Naruto and shrugged.

The blond looked at his clone, and started to see small black dots crawl into his clone's jacket, but other than that, not much happened. After waited a while, Shino's eyebrow raised. Shino's arm raised again, and bugs came flying out of the clone's jacket and went back to the Aburame, who just frowned.

"That method of attack would not work on you. Why? Because you have too much chakra for my insects to drain" Shino said, looking at Naruto. "I shall show you another common technique of mine".

Shino raised his arms again, releasing many bugs upon the clone, and clapped his hands together. Suddenly, a dome of bugs formed around the clone, and shrunk. The clone was not in sight for a few moments, until roughly a minute later a popping was heard, which both boys knew meant the clone was dispelled. Naruto fell onto one knee, and his breathing was slightly increased.

"Damn, that was so cool... *pant* ...I'm glad you are on my team" Naruto said, standing up once more, breathing slowly returning to normal.

Shino raised an eyebrow at the amount of chakra the blond had, as the amount he took from the clone was the amount of a Jounin, maybe even more. His bugs were suffering from taking too much chakra, which was rare for the amount of bugs he used. How did he not notice this from the start of the academy? Of course the blond wouldn't be able to perform a clone jutsu, the amount of chakra he had would make it impossible. The Aburame was confused however, as the teachers should of known this after watching the boy a couple times.

Thinking some more, Shino realised he had never seen Naruto receive help from any instructor throughout his time at the academy, never had he seen the blond recieve anything but scowls and hateful glares - the Aburame wanted to know his teammate's secret more than ever.

"I can also use that dome for defence. My other techniques need more practice to perform properly, but I believe it won't be long until I can utilise them effectively" Shino said, feeling pride in Naruto's comment on his skills.

Naruto laughed. "It's fine, but, seeming as we are here...". The blond looked at the field behind him. "Would you like to train with me? We could work on our teamwork skills or something?". The blond said this calmly, as if it was nothing. But, Naruto was desperately pleading for Shino to stay with him and train in his mind. This was his teammate, the first person of his class to not openly reject him, and he really wanted to build a strong friendship.

"It would be logical for us to get to know how each other works, as to improve working together on a squad. But, how will we train in a squad? We only have two members" Shino stated, remembering that they needed a third member.

The blond thought for a moment, before slamming his fist into his palm.

"I know, we can start by doing my normal formation exercises around the forest, and then we can spar for a bit to get used to our different styles" Naruto said in a joyous manner.

Shino was slightly puzzled. "Normal formation exercises? Who else do you train with?".

"Watch and learn" Naruto said, chuckling.

Naruto formed a hand sign and made nine new clones in front of him. Nine of the clones grouped up in threes and henged themselves into the various ninja that the boy usually formed. These groups then launched themselves into the forest, leaving Shino, Naruto and one clone.

The clone then performed the henge jutsu, and right before the boy's eyes, an exact copy of Sakura Haruno appeared before them.

"I didn't know your Kage Bunshin could perform jutsu?" Shino said, surprised once more.

"They are exact copies of me, they can do everything I can do" Naruto stated, looking around the forest. "Anyway, I'll go over our formation now and you tell me if you want to change it at all. My clones will be scouting around the forest, as if we are on enemy grounds and have to move around undetected. If you are spotted, we fall into a defensive formation where I will create a distraction and we will try to escape".

Shino nodded, and was surprised at the boy's 'normal formation training', as it required one to be as perceptive and stealthy as a well-trained experienced Genin, if not Chunin.

"Is that ok?" Naruto said.

Shino nodded. "Sounds challenging".

Naruto then proceeded to go over the formations, with Shino adding comments now and then, tweaking the formation slightly each time. Then, after Naruto sensed that the clones were ready, they begun.

xXx

Aburame Clan District

Shino slowly made his way toward his house, dragging his feet and arms behind him, and the usual hum that could be heard from the centre of his being when walking into his home was replaced by an ill sounding stutter which gave off an impression of fatigue. Not only was he tired, but his insects were as well. Not only had the training with his teammate enlighten him to many things about the blond, it had also made the Aburame like the boy, and would even go as far as to say that they were friends. But, the training was tough and grueling, and Shino only just made it through it. Physically, Shino wasn't the most capable in the class and his taijutsu lacked power, whereas Naruto had no such problem. His stamina was seemingly endless and what his taijutsu form lacked he made up for in strength.

Even though fatigued, the Aburame wore a smile on his face, the likes of which he hadn't had since his friend Torune was still around. He had made a friend, a real friend who shares the same feelings as him - he was not put of by bugs and gave Shino a chance. Although, the puzzle of the blond still remained and the boy was growing ever more curious. But he assumed what ever the important event was, he would know in time as Naruto promised to tell him.

Opening the door, Shino lazily drifted in the house and closed the door behind him. Slowly, he crossed the room towards the kitchen where his Mother was cooking. He moved so slowly that his mother didn't even know he was there until he moved the chair at the table to sit on it.

The Aburame child slumped down onto the table, and let out a deep breath. He could finally rest.

"Good evening Shino, good day? Why are you so tired? It was your team selections today, right? How did it go? Did you make any new friends?" The women asked, examining her child from across the room.

Shino's mother had always been different to the other clan members, ever since she was a child. She approached things not logically, but instead used her instincts and feelings to guide her, making her unfavourable with the clan elders. Every time she spoke, one would become filled with her happiness and curiosity that seemed to radiate out of her, although sometimes she can be overwhelming.

"It was.. interesting. I got put on a team with Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzumaki.." Shino's speech was cut short when a ladle hit the floor, dropped by his mother.

Shino's mother crouched down awkwardly to grab it, and when she stood back up, she fidgeted for a bit.

"Clumsy me... Carry on Shino". Her words sounded forced, and an underlying tone of nervousness was detectable.

The Aburame raised a mental eyebrow, feeling too tired to perform such a move physically, and continued.

"Our Jounin-sensei is Kakashi Hatake, and we are to meet him tomorrow at training ground three for a survival exercise. After we were briefed, Kakashi-sensei left and I accompanied Naruto in showing each other our abilities, and then trained together" Shino said, looking up at his mother.

The women merely went back to cooking the meal, and didn't look at her son.

"What do you think of the Uzumaki child?" Shino's mother said in an unusually low tone.

Shino stared for a moment, before closing his eyes.

"He is surprising" The Aburame paused, thinking of his time training today and how Naruto kept rushing to engage enemies and how he fell for his clone's traps often enough, and then continued. "He may be a fool sometimes and doesn't think things through, but I believe he can one day become Hokage".

The women was silent, and kept on cooking. Shino's head fell into his arms, tired of holding it up but listened intently for his mother's answer. From what he had seen so far, something about the boy has made his mother nervous, yet another piece to the puzzle.

"Your father won't be home until late, food will be ready in half an hour" His mother said in a calm voice.

"Arigato" Shino said, and with a lot of effort, forced himself off the table.

He had been doing too much thinking today, and decided that after eating, he needed to sleep. His head was hurting, and he was still agitated by his mother's reaction to Naruto being on his team. It was all too much for the boy. Maybe tomorrow he would find answers.

XxX

Sakura's Room

Checking her bag one last time, Sakura walked out of her room and made her way down the stairs. Although it was early in the morning, she bounced down the steps with an element of delight. She felt a strange sense of anticipation for the day that was about to unfold, and she didn't feel anxious about it like she thought she would - rather, she relished the challenge.

As Sakura went by the entrance to the kitchen, her stomach growled ferociously and as such she was forced to move ever more quickly towards the door. She hadn't eaten dinner last night and would not eat breakfast this morning due to Kakashi-sensei's orders, and she didn't feel like torturing herself by being near food.

At the door, she quickly put on her shoes, unlocked the door, and made her way out. It was too early for her parents to get up to say bye to her, so she just locked the door behind her, making sure to check she had everything she needed one last time.

As Sakura walked down the street, she thought about her team and her delighted mood dropped a little. Having Naruto on one's team was just a buzz kill - something which could potentially ruin your whole life as a ninja, or at least, that's how Sakura saw it. The boy was nothing more than a orphan boy with no talent for being a ninja, and only something which could hold the pinkette back. In regards to the other member of her team, she was just as disappointed. Shino was quiet and not talkative, not to mention creepy - she wouldn't want to be friends with him.

But, he was from a clan and therefore was a valuable ninja in the eye's of the village. He must have many clan techniques and could handle a lot of missions without messing up. So, socially Sakura thought she was doomed and in terms of ability, she could of had worse.

Then, after quickening her pace, Sakura started to think about Sasuke and how 'amazing' he was and how everything he did was so dreamy and awesome. These thoughts continued onwards, until she made it to the training ground she would have to meet their Jonin instructor.

Scanning the field initially, it looked like an ordinary training grounds; Big open grass area with a lake, and trees surrounding it. The only irregularity with it was the three wooden stumps at the far end of the field.

Walking into it, she noticed that someone was lying flat in the middle of the field, wearing orange.

She sighed irritably.

Sakura had hoped that the blond would have turned up late (as expected of him) and she wouldn't have to be around him that much. But, unfortunately, there the boy lay, seemingly for a while.

Marching up the Naruto with anger in her step, Sakura thought it would be best the teach the blond a lesson: Never fall asleep on a training ground they have a mission on.

Standing over the sleeping genin, Sakura chuckled a deep, evil laugh, and took a step back. She took a deep breath, and then swung her leg foreword. Sakura closed her eyes in an attempt to revel in the punishment she was giving, and waiting for her foot to connect. But, instead of the satisfying kick she was expecting, the blond's eyes opened suddenly and rolled out of the way. Naruto then stood up half drowsy, kunai in hand, and tried to look at his attacker.

His vision was fuzzy and he couldn't see any features on the girl before him - only a head of pink hair. Rubbing his eyes, his vision improved and, to his astonishment, Sakura had tried to kick him. Unfortunately for the girl, missing her target made her lose her balance, and she stumbled over as a result.

Naruto just looked at her again, rubbing his eyes once more and put his kunai away.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto said with a confused look. "Why did you try and kick me?".

Sakura got back up, enraged. Naruto had made her look like an idiot, in his sleep!

She stomped over towards the blond. "Naruto, you IDIOT!". Sakura hit Naruto on the side of the head.

Naruto took the hit, feeling confused. Due to Jiraiya trying to play tricks on him when he was asleep, Naruto had learnt to be aware of danger while he was asleep. More than once the old man had delivered a sharp punch to the boy as he slept and or decided to kick him while he slept for 'training'.

Naruto didn't know what he had done wrong, and would have thought about questioning it, if it wasn't Sakura who had tried to hit him. For some reason, instead of doing what he wanted, he froze, confused at what to do. He wanted to complain, to shout at her, to make her apologise. But he also wanted to apologise to her, to say sorry and to try and not mess up in the future. These thoughts collided, and was making Naruto's head hurt. Despite the many thoughts, the many conflicting ideas about what he should do, he always arrived at the same conclusion.

Why did she try and kick me?

Although this thought was one of his first, he often tried to dance around it and try to come up with some reason why he shouldn't ask that, but failed. After taking a few moments to strengthen his resolve, Naruto spoke.

"Sakura-chan, why did you try and kick me?" The blond said with an almost emotionless voice.

Sakura laughed, and tried to answer, but couldn't. She tried to say that Naruto was being annoying as usual, but he wasn't. She thought about it, and realised it was because he was there. She hated this realisation.

"Well, I, uhh" Sakura stuttered, looking at the ground. "I... You shouldn't of been asleep on the training field".

Naruto, shaking his head to clear his blurry vision, looked at the spot he was just sleeping in, and then scratched the back of his head.

"Oh, sorry, I guess I must of fallen asleep training here last night..." Naruto said, looking up at Sakura. "But, that isn't any reason for you to beat me up".

Sakura looked at the blond lost for words. She didn't know how to reply, and wished she didn't try and kick Naruto. Though, these thoughts were quickly supressed and replaced with 'I wish Naruto wasn't on my team'.

"It doesn't matter, just don't do it again" The girl said, crossing her arms and walking over to the wooden stumps.

Naruto stared, dumbfounded by his teammate's reply and started to get annoyed.

"Why are you mad at me? I fell asleep here last night, what's wrong with that?" Naruto said, jogging after Sakura.

The girl turned around wearing a scowl on her face.

"You can't go sleeping in the middle of a field, if I did that my parents would..." Sakura said, trailing off at the end at the realisation of what she just said.

Naruto stopped jogging for a moment, and stood still for a moment before his head fell down. His fists clenched and his body stiffened up, and if one could see his eyes they would see a sadness.

"I'm sorry we all can't have parents" The blond muttered, walking past Sakura and sitting down at one of the posts.

Sakura turned and tried to apologise for what she said. She didn't want to say that, she didn't even mean it in that way, and she hated the way it sounded. Although being a Uchiha fan-girl, Sakura still thought she was fair and didn't mock people for something they couldn't help, like a giant forehead or not having parents. She always gave the blond a hard time because she thought he was annoying, but she never wanted him to think it was because he was an orphan.

When she opened her mouth, Naruto looked up.

"I'm.." Sakura started before stopping after Naruto waved a dismissing hand at her.

"Don't bother" The blond said with venom in his voice. "Shino is coming now anyway".

Sakura didn't know what to do. She was sorry, but if he wasn't going to except her apology there was no point feeling guilty about it.

"Fine then" Was her reply.

Naruto looked in the direction of which Shino was coming, contemplating what he should be thinking. His crush had just hit him because he has no parents - he felt terrible. It was as if there was somebody stamping on his heart repeatedly, both for failing to make Sakura like him and not having a family. He hated life in that single moment, and he was as close to bursting out crying as he had ever been since his childhood.

Shino was, safe to say, the blond's friend now, and both were happier because of it. Their training session last evening was filled with conversation which involved the two getting to know each other and learning one another's skills. Naruto and Shino were a well-oiled machine now and intended to show the rest of their team the progress of which they made in that single night.

The Aburame walked around the corner, and sensed a queer aura coming from the place his teammates stood.

"Hi Shino, you ok from yesterday?" Naruto said, jumping up from the spot he was sitting with a smile spreading across his face. "I'm sorry for working you so hard".

The Aburame nodded. "I expected to be pushed to my limits, and you helped me do that. Thank you".

Naruto smiled some more, and chuckled.

"After you went home, I met Iruka-sensei for some ramen. He got me a special gift" The blond said, holding up two small scrolls. "I asked for them after my first training session with Ero-Sennin, and I used them last night".

"It would be wise to meet here again tomorrow morning and practice with them, I think we would be too tired to do so after our survival exercise" Shino said, nodding. "Also, I got what you wanted last night for you".

As he said this, Shino pulled out a book from his jacket, and handed it to the blond. Naruto's face lit up with happiness and smiled at the Aburame.

"Thank you Shino, this is amazing!" Naruto said, hopping from foot to foot. "I'll start working on this tonight".

Shino pushed his shades closer to his face awkwardly, and if he wasn't wearing his big jacket Naruto would of noticed his blush. The Aburame was happy to get it for Naruto, as he saw it as something which made their friendship real - the first sign of the two being friends.

Naruto opened the book and began to scan the first page, but then his face of pure joy turned into one of confusion.

"Shino, I'm really happy with this but isn't it the wrong book?" Naruto asked, passing the book to Shino.

The Aburame simply put it back in his friend's hands and shook his head.

"That book contains everything you need to know. When you get some time, read the introduction and you will understand".

Naruto nodded and, closing the book, grabbed a scroll from his jacket and opened it. Sealing the book away, Naruto pulled out a second scroll and opened it. Enveloping his wrist, the smoke cleared and three bowls appeared stacked on top one another with three small brown balls (roughly the size of a ping pong ball). The blond handed one to Shino, winking.

"Remember what we talked about last night" Naruto said.

Shino nodded, taking the bowl.

Sakura, who had remained silent up until now, suddenly spoke up.

"What are you two doing, we aren't allowed to eat breakfast?" Sakura said, walking over to the boy's position.

Naruto and Shino looked at each other, the blond smiling and Shino nodding.

"Sakura, what happens to our chakra if we don't eat?" Naruto said, pulling a couple chopsticks out of his pocket and passing them to Shino. "They lower, right? And the only way to replenish them easily is to eat. How can we do a survival exercise without food? Eat with us, I made some food for us all".

Sakura's stomach growled, and her hunger only increased when she saw Shino put some noodles in his mouth. 'Come on Sakura..' Inner-Sakura whispered. 'Just have one bite, you are sooooooo hungry. Naruto's right, you need food in order to complete the mission'. Sakura shook her head, trying to stop listening to Inner-Sakura.

"But Kakashi-sensei said.." Sakura tried to argue but was cut off by Naruto.

"Kakashi-sensei said we can't eat, but that would jeopardize our mission. If I don't have the chakra levels to perform properly, I can't protect my teammates and I can't willingly allow myself to be put in that situation" Naruto said, who stood up with his arm outstretched, holding a bowl. "Just eat with us, ok?".

The girl was lost for words, as the Naruto she knew would never say something like that, and out of her bewildered state she accepted the bowl and sat down. Looking up at the two boy's once again who now were both eating, starting eating her food.

The food itself was warm, as if it had been sitting on the table for ten minutes, but other than that it was perfect. The noodles were well cooked and the broth had a unique flavour, and Sakura couldn't help but eat it quickly. She finished before Shino, but way behind Naruto who finished in what seemed like seconds.

"Naruto, where did you buy that, it was alright" Sakura said, passing her bowl to the blond.

The blond chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "I actually made that myself, Ero-Sennin shown me how".

Sakura laughed. "As if you made that, don't lie!" The girl said, Naruto flinching at her words. "Have you got anything else though? I'm still hungry".

Naruto picked up one of the brown balls and passed it to Sakura.

"It's a food pill, Ero-Sennin gave me a load. It's got all the nutrients you need" Naruto said, smiling.

Sakura looked at the pill apprehensively, and then took a bite out of it. Suddenly her eyes opened wide and she was filled with energy. It didn't take her long to finish the rest of it, and she felt more energetic than ever. Shino and Naruto ate their pills too, only they didn't react at all when they ate them. Sakura was grateful for the food and food pill, but as she sat there, content due to her being full, she started to think about Sasuke.

Noticing that there wasn't much conversation going on (Naruto was sealing the bowls back in a scroll and Shino was looking at a bug on his finger), the girl too it upon herself to say something.

"So, what do you think we are going to be doing today?" Sakura said, smiling awkwardly at Shino.

The Aburame looked at Naruto, and then back at the pinkette.

"Well, whatever it is, it is fair to assume that it will involve using our skills as a ninja to their fullest. Why? Because our sensei needs to know what we all can do" Shino said.

"Yeah, I can't wait!" Naruto said, putting the scroll into the deep recesses of his jacket.

Sakura chuckled.

"Naruto, you know you need to have ninja skills to be able to use them".

Naruto frowned at this, and looked at Shino.

"I have been training really hard this past week though, and I've learnt loads of new techniques" Naruto said, Shino nodding as he did.

Sakura stopped chuckling, but continued to give a mocking smile. "Naruto, you are, and will always be the dead-last of our class. You are a terrible ninja in comparison to Sasuke-kun".

"No I'm not! I could probably beat him in a fight now" Naruto said, frowning,

"Saskue-kun is a genius, light-years ahead of you Naruto. You will never be a great ninja, you can't even perform a clone jutsu - the easiest jutsu ever. The only thing you could even do mildly well was taijutsu, and that was because you have crazy amounts of stamina. Sasuke-kun can even beat you at that, so don't try and boast and say you are a good ninja" Sakura said, thinking about the Uchiha, and began to look up at the clouds. "Sasuke-kun is just amazing..".

Naruto's head started to fill with memories, memories of every time someone had called him a name or doubted him. He thought about how he was beaten every time he tried to fight Sasuke and how he practised for hours every day to try and perform the clone jutsu. His head then became clogged with all these memories, they became one big picture of despair. He was then reminded of how Sakura has treated him all these years - his whole time with Sakura played through his head, and slowed down when it came to this morning. The way she hit him, doubted him, insulted him, he didn't like it. His fists clenched. Then, he remembered the time he fought Mizuki, how he tricked him, used him, tried to kill him and almost killed Iruka-sensei.

Naruto stood up, head looking at the floor, fists clenched with blood dripping from them

"You want to underestimate me, sure, why not? Everyone else does. Insult me, hit me, laugh at me - I'm done caring. Don't come running to me when you want my help" The blond said, walking off in the other direction.

Sakura snapped out of her day-dreaming and looked at the blond walking away. 'What was that all about?'.

"Hey, Naruto, where are you going?" Sakura said, standing up. "Stop being an idiot and come back here".

Naruto didn't stop however, and jumped into the nearest tree. At the corner of his eye, Shino saw a droplet of water fall from the boy's face as he jumped, and felt angry.

The Aburame rarely felt anger, and didn't know what to do. So, he tried to supress it, to push it down into the core of his being. He was reminded of how everyone had treated Naruto, how he has always been alone, and he couldn't help but feel empathetic. Although not knowing much about making friends, Shino acted on his instincts (Something members of the Aburame clan rarely do) and decided that the boy needed to be left alone. He faced Sakura after standing up and put his hand on her shoulder, hindering her movement.

"I think it's best if you leave him alone" Shino said, anger rising once more. "You've done enough".

Sakura stared at the bug-wielder in astonishment, for she had never heard him speak in such a venomous tone.

"Why are you acting like that? I haven't done anything?".

Shino looked at her for a moment, and then walked off back to where they were sitting.

Sakura, not knowing what to do, joined him and sat down. The pinkette looked at the Aburame, lost for words and didn't say anything as a result. As for Shino, he had nothing to say to Sakura as if he did, he doubted whether he could keep supressing his anger.

There was no conversation after that, and the three of them waited for a number of hours, atmosphere growing to an unbearable level.

After a painful amount of time, Naruto jumped down from the tree, book in hand and tapped Shino on the shoulder.

"He going to be here in a few moments, but thanks again for the book" Naruto said in a solemn tone, although he felt happy with the book. "I think I can use it to help me".

Shino nodded, and then stood up in waiting for Kakashi.

Sakura, listening to the boy's conversation, got up as well, and tried to think of something to say to Naruto. Over the time they had spent in silence, the pinkette came to the conclusion that either she said something that hurt Naruto or something had happened to Naruto and he was just taking his anger out on her.

Before she could come up with anything however, a white-haired man casually walked over to them from the corner of the field.

"Good morning guys" Kakashi said. "Sorry I'm late, but you see, there was this old lady...". This sentence would never be finished due to a very angry blond shouting.

"Liar!" Naruto shouted. "You are just a lazy bum, now let's get on with it".

Kakashi chuckled light-heartedly.

"Ok, I'm setting this alarm clock here to go off at noon.." The man said, placing down an alarm clock. "I have here two small bells. Your challenge is to steal these from me before the timer sounds. If you do not get a bell, you will be tied to the wooden stumps over there".

Kakashi coughed, and the three genins leaned in.

"Oh, and whoever get's tied to a post goes back to the academy for another year".

xXx

A/N

Hello, I am sorry for how long it takes me to update... writing is difficult.

The bell test will be in the next chapter, and so will Sakura realising that Naruto isn't an annoying loser with no talent. It looks as if Sakura is being horrible here and how I'm making her seem a little more, antagonistic that usual but don't worry. She won't become a character hated by Naruto or Shino.

I'm sorry if any parts seemed rushed at all, I just kind of wanted to get it written and updated as quickly as possible - this was difficult as I had two whole weeks full of tests which took up loads of my time.

Also, I'm training for a sixteen mile run so I have to spend less time at my computer, terrible right?

Anyway, Final message - this will not be a fanfic which makes Sakura 'the bad guy'.

At this point, Naruto would have an even fight with Sasuke, with no winner. Sometimes people forget how much of a friggin' boss Sasuke is, I mean he learnt the Chidori in no time at all and got his speed up to Rock Lee's level at the same time. What a dude...

Oh yeah, Sasuke will be a strong character and Naruto won't become that much stronger than him, if stronger at all. I don't like it when Sasuke is depicted as all talk and no action.

See you next time guys.

c:


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